Al Qaeda cleric killed, Yemen's top Al Qaeda cleric, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee with a $5 million bounty on his head, has been killed.
Ibrahim al-Rubaish died in an American drone strike on Sunday, according to a statement on Tuesday by the group's powerful Yemeni branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). It did not mention the location of the attack.
Rubaish, a Saudi national who urged attacks on the West on the wake of AQAP-inspired attacks in Paris three months ago, was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2006. In October last year, the US government offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Yemen has been wracked by fighting since a Saudi-led military coalition sparked a fractious civil war across the country. AQAP has capitalised on the chaos with targeted attacks and a mass prison break.
An alliance of Zaydi Shiite rebels, known as the Houthis, and forces loyal to Yemen's former president seized control of the capital Sanaa last year, causing the president to flee the country.
Washington considered President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi a key counterterrorism ally, and his flight to Saudi Arabia appeared to temporarily halt an American programme of drone strikes against targets inside Yemen.
The Saudi-led bombing campaign has damaged Yemen's military infrastructure, and elite US-trained units trained to fight Al Qaeda have been scrambled by the government’s collapse.
But US officials insisted this week that the CIA continued to fly unmanned craft over Yemen, and that it was prepared to launch strikes against jihadist militants. Sunday's apparent drone strike is believed to be the second to take place since the Saudi-led coalition began pounding Houthi positions in late March.
The UN Security Council stepped up efforts Tuesday to thwart a Houthi rebel takeover of Yemen, imposing an arms embargo on its leaders, along with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son. The arms embargo was approved in a 14-0 vote, with Russia abstaining.
Moscow had insisted on an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, which has claimed over 600 lives and deepened Yemen's longstanding humanitarian crisis.
Ibrahim al-Rubaish died in an American drone strike on Sunday, according to a statement on Tuesday by the group's powerful Yemeni branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). It did not mention the location of the attack.
Rubaish, a Saudi national who urged attacks on the West on the wake of AQAP-inspired attacks in Paris three months ago, was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2006. In October last year, the US government offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Yemen has been wracked by fighting since a Saudi-led military coalition sparked a fractious civil war across the country. AQAP has capitalised on the chaos with targeted attacks and a mass prison break.
An alliance of Zaydi Shiite rebels, known as the Houthis, and forces loyal to Yemen's former president seized control of the capital Sanaa last year, causing the president to flee the country.
Washington considered President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi a key counterterrorism ally, and his flight to Saudi Arabia appeared to temporarily halt an American programme of drone strikes against targets inside Yemen.
The Saudi-led bombing campaign has damaged Yemen's military infrastructure, and elite US-trained units trained to fight Al Qaeda have been scrambled by the government’s collapse.
But US officials insisted this week that the CIA continued to fly unmanned craft over Yemen, and that it was prepared to launch strikes against jihadist militants. Sunday's apparent drone strike is believed to be the second to take place since the Saudi-led coalition began pounding Houthi positions in late March.
The UN Security Council stepped up efforts Tuesday to thwart a Houthi rebel takeover of Yemen, imposing an arms embargo on its leaders, along with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son. The arms embargo was approved in a 14-0 vote, with Russia abstaining.
Moscow had insisted on an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, which has claimed over 600 lives and deepened Yemen's longstanding humanitarian crisis.
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