Al-Qaeda confirms that a senior member of the jihadist group in Yemen has been killed in a suspected air strike

Terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda on Sunday, March 5, confirmed the death of a top jihadist in Yemen in what is believed to have been an airstrike.

According to sources in local administration and security, Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi was slain, according to AFP. He was described as a senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula by the sources (AQAP). The US considers AQAP to be one of Al Qaeda’s more hazardous branches.

Statement provided by SITE, which keeps track of jihadist websites, says Tamimi, a Saudi also known as Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, perished in a drone hit on February 26 that was directed at his home in war-torn Yemen’s northern Marib region.

The statement identified Tamimi as a ‘media official’ who ‘previously managed external operations in the group, including those striking American interests’

AQAP said Tamimi spent nearly four years in prison in Saudi Arabia before travelling to Yemen in 2013, where he expressed a desire to attack ‘vital’ American interests and carry out a suicide attack himself.