AQAP announces death of former Bin Laden associate in Yemen, intelligence group says

Washington considers Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the worldwide extremist network's most dangerous branch

An Al Qaeda logo on a street sign in the town of Jaar in Yemen’s southern Abyan province in 2012. Hani Mohammed / AP

The director of SITE Intelligence Group said on Thursday that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has announced the death of a military commander in a US air strike in Yemen.

Rita Katz, director of SITE which monitors militant groups online, said there was no mention of when or where the death of Salih bin Salim bin Ubayd ’Abolan, also known as Abu 'Umayr Al Hadhrami, a former associate of Al Qaeda's leader Osama Bin Laden, took place.

Ms Katz pointed to Twitter reports of a US air strike that killed three AQAP militants on November 14.

Washington considers AQAP to be the worldwide extremist network's most dangerous branch.

The extremist group has thrived in the chaos of years of civil war between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Shiite Houthi rebels who control the capital.