Al-Shihri was reportedly killed with six others in the Hadramawt area.

 

Some reports say Yemeni troops were involved, others that it was an air strike, possibly a US drone attack.

 

Al-Shihri, a Saudi national, was released by the US from detention¹ in Guantanamo Bay in 2007.

 

Yemen has previously² announced it had killed al-Shihri and his death this time has not been confirmed.

 

The Yemeni army has been fighting Islamist militants³ in the south of the country for months.

 

 

The Yemeni ministry⁴ of defence website said al-Shihri was killed along with six other militants in an operation, but gave few details.

 

Official sources in Yemen told the BBC the death occurred in an air raid in the Wadi Ain area of Hadramawt.

 

Military sources, however, said they had no information on the death and refused to confirm it. But the sources did confirm the area was subject to air raids.

 

Separate Yemeni sources said another Saudi and an Iraqi national were among the other people killed in the operation, which took place last Wednesday.

 

Yemeni defence ministry officials told Associated Press that the militants killed were travelling in a car and that it was hit by a missile believed to have been fired by a US drone, although this has not been confirmed.

 

Other reports say the operation was carried out by the Yemeni military.

 

US cables released by the Wikileaks website last December suggested that Yemen had allowed secret US air strikes against suspected al-Qaeda militants.

 

Then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh claimed the raids were conducted by Yemen's military when they were in fact carried out by the US, according to the cables.

 

AP quoted a senior official at President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's office as saying that DNA⁵ tests had not yet confirmed al-Shihri's identity.

点击收听单词发音