Yemen’s Al Qaida branch says its top cleric has been killed

CAIRO: Yemen’s Al Qaida branch announced on Tuesday that its top cleric, a Saudi-national who has had a $5 million bounty on his head, has been killed, allegedly in a drone attack.

Al Qaida said in a statement posted on Twitter that Ibrahim Al Rubaish was killed, along with other, unnamed members of the group, by a drone late Sunday. The statement did not specify the location of the drone attack.

Yemeni and US officials had no immediate comment on the claim.

Al Rubaish, believed to be in his late 30s, was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2006, after which he joined Al Qaida in Yemen. He was considered the group’s main ideologue and theological adviser and his writings and sermons were prominent in its publications.

Last year, he hailed the seizure of large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria by Al Qaida’s rival, Daesh (the Islamic State group). “I ask God that efforts are united to target the enemies of the religion,” he said in a video recording at the time.

If the drone attack is confirmed, it would be the first use of unmanned aircraft since Yemen sank further into turmoil last month.