Al-Qaeda says U.S. drone killed top figure in Yemen

Michael Winter | USA TODAY

A U.S. drone killed a top al-Qaeda commander in Yemen who had said the group was behind the bloody Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the terrorist organization has announced.

Nasr al-Ansi died in the CIA airstrike, which also killed his oldest son and several other militants, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in a video posted Wednesday to the Internet, according to news outlets Thursday.

The announcement came from al-Qaeda operative Khaled Batarfi, who did not say when or where in Yemen al-Ansi was killed, the Associated Press said. CBS News, citing unnamed sources, reported the attack was April 21.

Al-Qaeda leader claims 'Charlie Hebdo' attack in video A top commander in a Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda claims his group funded and planned the attack on 'Charlie Hebdo' in a new video. Meanwhile, the satirical magazine appears to have sold out of its controversial first edition since the attack.

Al-Ansi was reportedly a confidant of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader killed by U.S. special forces four years ago.

In a video statement in January, he claimed that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had carried out the attack that killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The French satirical newspaper publishes cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, which many Muslims consider blasphemous.

Two brothers were later shot dead by French security forces, and al-Ansi praised the pair as heroes. He said that his group "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation," and that further "tragedies and terror" could be expected.

Al-Ansi is the second top leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to die in a U.S. drone attack in the past month.

The group said in a statement that its foremost cleric, Ibrahim al-Rubaish, a Saudi national, was killed with other AQAP members April 12. He joined the group after being released from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in 2006, and had a $5 million bounty on his head.