Sana’a: Al Qaida in Yemen has posted a statement on militant websites saying that its second-most senior commander has not been killed. It’s the second time the group has denied Saeed Al Shihri’s death.
The Saudi national, who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, is “alive and in good health,” according to a senior Al Qaida cleric in Yemen and the group’s media arm, Al Malahem.
A Yemeni police official said on Monday that security forces may have been too quick announcing Al Shihri’s death in January based on information from Saudi Arabia. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorised to release the information to reporters.
Yemeni officials had claimed the Al Qaida commander was killed by a US drone strike.
