Senior Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen killed in air strike: Pentagon

In this April 23, 2013 file photo, a defiant Yemeni Al-Qaida militant, center, holds a banner during a court hearing in state security court in Sanaa, Yemen. A top leader of Yemen's Al-Qaida branch has been killed in a US air strike, the Pentagon said on Friday. (AP file photo)

WASHINGTON: Agence France Presse: A US air strike in Yemen has killed a regional Al-Qaeda senior operative, the Pentagon said Friday.
The January 8 strike in the central province of Baida killed Abd Al-Ghani Al-Rasas of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.
“This strike removes an AQAP senior leader and facilitator in the area and will disrupt AQAP’s terrorism operations in Yemen and the region,” he said in a statement.
AQAP and the Daesh group have exploited a power vacuum created by a conflict between the government and Shiite Houthi rebels, in order to expand their presence in Yemen, especially in the south and southeast.
US operations against AQAP in Yemen are separate from a Saudi-led coalition campaign against the Houthis.