A suspected USA drone strike overnight killed a top Islamist militant commander in southern Yemen who had run al Qaeda’s combat operations and had a $5 million US bounty on his head, residents said.
Advertisement
He was killed along with two guards in the air strike on the Maraqesha area of Abyan province, a relative said.
There have been reports that Beliani recently defected from AQAP and became the chief of IS’s Yemen branch.
Hamza headed the Yemeni franchise of the group, known as Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which according to American government sources is arguably the most risky of the group’s affiliates.
His killing came just hours after a similar strike in southeastern Shabwa province, the official said.
The group has claimed credit for several thwarted attacks on US-bound airliners as well as the deadly assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.
In June, a United States drone killed AQAP leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, a former personal secretary to Osama bin Laden.
Dozens of al Qaeda militants reclaimed the town of Azzan in Yemen’s Shabwa province on Monday, residents said, exploiting a security vacuum.
Advertisement
Impoverished Yemen has suffered fierce fighting and humanitarian crisis since March, when a Saudi-led Gulf Arab coalition began near-daily air strikes to rout the Iran-backed Houthis and restore the central government.
