[Al Ahram] A drone strike Friday killed an Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, a tribal source said, the latest in a string of attacks on what is considered the bad boy group's most dangerous network.The source told AFP the early morning strike on a vehicle travelling in Manasseh village in the southern province of Bayda killed Qaeed al-Dhahab and two other men.
Witnesses confirmed the death of Dhahab, a military chief of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who had previously fought with the group in Iraq.
He was the brother of Tarek al-Dhahab, an AQAP leader who in January 2012 with other Death Eaters briefly overran the town of Radah in Bayda province before being killed.
Some 10 drone strikes since July 28 in eastern, southern and southeastern Yemen have killed more than 40 people. They are thought to be carried by the United States, the only country in the region to have drones.
Earlie this month, Yemen said it had foiled an AQAP plot to storm a Canadian-run oil facility at Mina al-Dhaba on the Arabian Sea coast.
The United States had closed some two dozen embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa since August 4 after reported intelligence intercepts from Al-Qaeda suggested an attack was imminent.
Other foreign missions in Sanaa were also closed briefly over the alleged plot, which AQAP has denied as "nonsense and propaganda".