Al-Qaeda has confirmed that the leader of its offshoot in the
Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, has been killed in a US drone strike in
Yemen.
His death was announced by the AQAP group in an online video, in
which it said two other fighters had also died.
Al-Wuhayshi was seen as al-Qaeda's second-in-command and
was a former private secretary to Osama Bin Laden.
His successor was named in the video as military chief Qasim al-Raymi.
The Yemeni news group
al-Masdar Online has previously reported (in Arabic) thatal-Wuhayshi was killed in an attack in Hadramawt province
last Friday.
"We in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula mourn to our
Muslim nation... that Abu Baseer Nasser bin Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, God rest
his soul, passed away in an American strike which targeted him along with two
of his mujahideen brothers, may God rest their souls," Khaled Batarfi, a
senior member of the group, was quoted as saying on the video.
The Pentagon said it would not comment.
The Site intelligence
group previously said that if the death were confirmed it would be the biggest strike on al-Qaeda since
Bin Laden's death in Pakistani in 2011.
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