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Yemen says Fort Hood-linked imam may be dead | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A picture taken on August 22, 2009 and provided by the Yemeni army’s media office shows a soldier manning a tank during clashes with Shiite rebels in the flashpoint Saada province, 240 kms north of Sanaa (AFP)


A picture taken on August 22, 2009 and provided by the Yemeni army's media office shows a soldier manning a tank during clashes with Shiite rebels in the flashpoint Saada province, 240 kms north of Sanaa (AFP)

A picture taken on August 22, 2009 and provided by the Yemeni army’s media office shows a soldier manning a tank during clashes with Shiite rebels in the flashpoint Saada province, 240 kms north of Sanaa (AFP)

SANAA, (Reuters) – The leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a Muslim preacher linked by U.S. intelligence to deaths at a U.S. army base are believed to have died in a Yemen air strike, a security official said on Thursday.

Yemen said 30 militants were killed in the strike in the eastern province of Shabwa.

Among those believed killed was Anwar al Awlaki, whom U.S. officials linked to the gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas on Nov. 5.

“Anwar al Awlaki is suspected to be dead (in the air raid),” said the Yemeni official, who asked not to be identified.

The air attack targeted a meeting of militants planning an attack on Yemeni and foreign oil targets, the official said. He added that the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Abu Basir Nasser al-Wahayshi, may also have been killed in the strikes but that there was no confirmation.

“We are still unsure if two of the top leaders have been killed or not. One of them is the … al Qaeda member Nasser al-Wahayshi,” he said, declining to say whether more strikes would take place on Thursday.

Saudi and Yemeni militants said earlier this year they were uniting under the name Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, using Yemen as their base.

In a video announcement earlier this year, al-Wahayshi, a Yemeni, threatened attacks against Westerners in the oil-exporting region.

Al Arabiya television said there had been four air strikes.

Yemen’s Supreme Security Committee issued a warning to citizens in the province of Shabwa not to aid the militants.

On Monday, Yemen said its security forces and war planes last week foiled a planned series of suicide bombings. About 30 Al Qaeda militants were killed in those airstrikes with 17 arrested in Abyan and in Arhab, northeast of the capital Sanaa.

Yemen, which has intensified its campaign against Al Qaeda militants over recent weeks, is also facing a Shi’ite rebellion in the north and secessionist violence in the south.

A man claiming to be an Al Qaeda member addresses a crowd gathered in Yemen's southern province of Abyan on December 22, 2009 (AFP)

A man claiming to be an Al Qaeda member addresses a crowd gathered in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan on December 22, 2009 (AFP)

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh meets with chief of the Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal (unseen) at the Defence Complex in Sanaa December 8, 2009 (REUTERS)

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh meets with chief of the Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal (unseen) at the Defence Complex in Sanaa December 8, 2009 (REUTERS)