(Previous Incident Code: YEM165 )

Associated Press reports that an anonymous Yemeni security official claimed a US drone attacked unspecified targets in al Bayda, but did not provide any further details. Local Arabic website al Masdar Online said the strike hit a presumed al Qaeda site. It reported there were no casualties. Access for reporters to the southern province is currently severely limited due to ongoing Yemeni military operations against AQAP.

August 2 2014
An AQAP propaganda film said the group’s deceased second-in-command, Saeed al Shehri, was killed by US drones in 2013, not in 2012 as previously thought. A previously released eulogy had said al Shehri had succumbed to injuries sustained in a 2012 strike – most likely in September (YEM104) or October (YEM109). The exact date of his death is unknown.

The propaganda video, the third of a three-part documentary about his life and death, said al Shehri had survived several US attacks. The earliest was said to be in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Al Shehri ‘was prisoner number 327 at Guantanamo Bay, captured as he tried to cross the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan late in 2001.’ He was released to a rehabilitation programme in Saudi Arabia in 2007. But he absconded and joined AQAP.

Al Shehri was infamous for dying in drone strikes, only to reappear alive and well. It is not clear if the reports of al Shehris’ death were the product of overoptimistic officials briefing the media, or if AQAP deliberately put out misinformation about their commander’s demise.

The first reported attempt to kill al Shehri in Yemen was September 21 2011 (YEM029). The AQAP propaganda video reports drones targeted al Shehri a second time “six or seven months” later. This would be approximately in March 2012 though it is not clear if this is the case. And it is not clear which strike could have targeted al Shehri – more confirmed US attacks, killing more people, hit Yemen in March that year than in any other calendar month. The third attempt to kill al Shehri, according to the video, was in September or October 2012. He reportedly lost his right eye, an ear and part of his skull in this attack.