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 A close associate of Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to
the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets, Wuhayshi, a Yemeni in
his late 30s, was named by Zawahri as al Qaeda's effective number
two in 2013.
With a $10 million price on his head offered by U.S. authorities,
Wuhayshi was also leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and
his death potentially weakens the group, widely seen as the militant
network's strongest branch.
He led the group as it plotted foiled bomb attacks against
international airliners and claimed responsibility for the deadly
shooting at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, calling it
punishment for insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
Senior AQAP member Khaled Batarfi said in a video statement posted
online that Wuhayshi "passed away in an American strike which
targeted him along with two of his mujahideen brothers, may God rest
their souls."
The group had met and appointed its former military chief Qassim
al-Raymi, also a Yemeni, as his replacement, he said.
"It's a significant blow. He could have moved up to the top spot (in
al Qaeda)," said Martin Reardon, senior vice president at the Soufan
Group security consultancy.
 "AQAP is widely considered the most capable terrorist group in the
world," said Reardon, a veteran of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, referring to its focus on attacks on the West.
The group has also orchestrated spectacular attacks inside Yemen in
recent years, targeting government ministries, military camps and
soldiers, in which hundreds of people were killed.
Al Qaeda did not specify how or when Wuhayshi was killed. Some
residents of the southeastern Yemeni city of Mukalla reported a
suspected drone strike on Friday.
But eyewitnesses said that last Tuesday, townspeople were gathering
on the city's seaside corniche after evening prayers when an
explosion killed three men, spreading their limbs across a street as
panicked residents fled. QAEDA VETERAN
In an unusual move, Al Qaeda gunmen cordoned off the area and
gathered the bodies, residents said, leading them to believe a
militant leader was among the dead.
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Wuhayshi is the sixth major AQAP leader killed in suspected U.S.
bombings this year, despite political turmoil in Yemen that led to
the closing of the U.S. embassy and the evacuation of its military
and intelligence personnel.
Late on Monday, a U.S. official said it was examining reports of his
death. A second official said the U.S. military was not involved in
any strike. It was unclear whether a strike may have been carried
out by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Wuhayshi, according to Gregory Johnson, author of a book on Yemen,
was born in southern Yemen and traveled to Afghanistan for the first
time in 1998 to join al Qaeda. He met bin Laden there and acted as
his aide-de-camp until 2001, when the group was scattered after the
U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. He became head of AQAP in 2009.
In 2013, U.S. sources said an intercepted communication between
Wuhayshi and Zawahiri - believed based in Pakistan - was part of a
broader pool of intelligence that led to an alert closing several
U.S. embassies in the Middle East and Africa.
After an Arab military campaign against Iran-allied rebels that
control much of the country's east, AQAP has made common cause with
tribal and religious groups, and residents in Mukalla say its
members carry weapons and recruit there openly.
(Writing by Howard Goller and Noah Browning; Additional reporting by
Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa, Phil Stewart in Washington, William
Maclean in Dubai and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo; Editing by Larry King
and Dominic Evans)
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