Saudi Arabia’s most wanted Qaeda man killed in Yemen: Correspondent

The Saudi national, Saeed al-Shahri, who previously claimed to be al-Qaeda’s second-man in Yemen, was killed, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported Tuesday.

Shahri fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, before being released in 2007.

After his release he was transferred to one of Saudi Arabia’s famous “rehabilitation” institutes.

However, less than one month after being discharged, he left for Yemen and established another radical Islamist organization.

According to an Al Arabiya correspondent, Shahri’s family said he was severely injured after a joint Yemeni-U.S. operation targeting al-Qaeda members in Yemen in the second week of December, 2012.

After falling into a coma, Shahri was later declared dead and was buried in Yemen.

Al-Qaeda seized several southern Yemeni towns during the chaos of last year’s popular uprising, but were driven into nearby mountain areas by the army’s summer offensive. They have retaliated with bombings and assassinations of Yemeni officials in the capital Sana’a and elsewhere.

Washington considers the Yemen branch of al-Qaeda to be the world’s most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, and has sent advisors to Yemen to assist the government in its campaign.