MUKALLA, Yemen, June 18 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida soldiers in Yemen killed two alleged spies Thursday after the assassination of an al-Qaida leader.

Earlier photographs showed the two men blindfolded and kneeling in front of armed soldiers holding banners.


They were then shot dead, publicly, in the city of Mukalla before being hung off a bridge in front of various spectators below and on the surface of the bridge.

Al-Qaida members from the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) hung the men alongside a banner that translated to "The House of Saud directs American planes to bomb the holy warriors."

An AQAP militant explained that the men were thought to have infiltrated the group in order to get information that would facilitate the death of Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who was Osama Bin Laden's former senior lieutenant and was killed in a U.S. drone attack Tuesday.

It's believed that the men acquired the necessary information to the U.S. through bugs planted on clothes and vehicles.

Analysts and Yemeni government officials say the airstrikes require local informants in order to work. It's possible that the surge in spies may destabilize APAQ and lessen the effectiveness of its tasks by slowing down its command and control structure.

The U.S. has killed five senior AQAP figures so far this year, while AQAP has plotted bomb attacks against international airlines and attacked French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo following its insult of the Prophet Mohammed.

AQAPs stronghold over remote areas in Southern Yemen came to be after the merge between the Yemeni and Saudi portions of al-Qaida in 2009. They have strong control over the area as state authority is essentially non-existent.