SANAA: Yemeni security forces have killed a senior Al Qaeda operative in the southern province of Lahij, where he was known as the group’s local chief, state media said on Friday.

Saba news agency, quoting an unnamed security official, said that Turki al-Assiri, a Saudi also known as Marwan al-Mekki, was shot dead on Thursday in the Tuban region.

He was killed as he resisted arrest and one of his companions was wounded and detained, the official said.

Assiri “was an Al Qaeda leader and its emir in Lahij”, the official added.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates in Yemen, is classified by the United States as the network’s deadliest franchise.

Last month Washington slapped $45 million in rewards on the heads of AQAP leaders in Yemen.

AQAP was born out of a 2009 merger of its franchises in Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden’s native Saudi Arabia and his ancestral homeland in Yemen.

Published in Dawn, November 8th , 2014