WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Yemeni official says al-Qaida's chief bomb maker in Yemen was not killed in the U.S. drone strike on a convoy two days ago.
U.S. intelligence officials had said that bomb maker Ibrahim Al-Asiri may have been killed. But on Sunday a Yemeni official said Al-Asiri was not among those who died in the drone attack.
Al-Asiri has been linked to the bomb that authorities allege a Nigerian man tried to detonate aboard a Detroit-bound plane in 2009. The Yemeni official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
Two American-born members of al-Qaida did die in the strike last Friday. They were radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and the co-editor of an online English-language magazine, Samir Khanurging, who had urged American Muslims to carry out attacks.