Al-Qaida said Tuesday that Nasir al-Wuhayshi, its deputy chief and the leader of its potent Yemen branch, was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week.

In a video statement, the group said Friday’s strike in the southeastern port city of Mukalla killed Wuhayshi and two others. The video also named Qassim al-Rimi as the new leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

U.S. officials said late Monday they were working to confirm Wuhayshi’s death, and did not say whether the CIA was behind the drone attack.

Former bin Laden aide

Wuhayshi was a deputy of Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and a one-time aide to former terror leader Osama bin Laden.  He became the leader of AQAP, which the U.S. considers Al-Qaida’s most dangerous branch, in 2009.

Under Wuhayshi, AQAP carried out several high-profile plots, including the Christmas Day 2009 attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner.  In January, the group claimed responsibility for the deadly assault on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The U.S. had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Wuhayshi’s arrest.

US drone campaign

A six-year U.S. drone campaign has included more than 100 airstrikes in Yemen targeting AQAP militants.  This year alone, the drone attacks have killed the group’s top cleric, Ibrahim al-Rubaish, and another of its top commanders, Harith al-Nadhari.

The program became more complicated with Houthi rebels forcing President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia and seizing the Al-Anad airbase that served as an important intelligence site for U.S. personnel carrying out the drone campaign.

Hadi’s government had given permission for the U.S. to help in its years-long battle against AQAP, but the Houthis, despite their own clashes with the militants, have publicly opposed the drone strikes.

  al-qaida, death, drone, nasir al-wuhayshi, strike, yemen