Al-Qaida branch deputy killed in Yemen Said al-Shehri in a video posted on Islamist websites. Photograph: Reuters Yemeni armed forces have killed Said al-Shehri, seen as the second-in-command of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), a government website said. The Yemeni defence ministry said Shehri, a Saudi national, was killed along with six other militants in an army operation in the remote Hadramout province. It gave no more details. A Yemeni security source said the operation last Wednesday was thought to have been carried out by a US drone rather than the Yemeni military. The source said another Saudi and an Iraqi national were among those killed. Shehri is a former inmate of Guantánamo Bay who was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and put through a rehabilitation programme for militants. Yemen's government is trying to re-establish order after an uprising pushed out its veteran ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh in February, but it faces threats from Islamist militants, southern secessionists and a Shia rebel movement in the north. The protests and factional fighting have allowed al-Qaida's regional wing to seize swaths of south Yemen, and Shia Muslim Houthi rebels to carve out their own domain in the north. The lawlessness has alarmed the US and Saudi Arabia, which view the state as a new frontline in their war on al-Qaida and its affiliates The US has used unmanned drones to target Aqap, which has planned attacks on international targets including planes and is described by Washington as the most dangerous wing of al-Qaida. The US backed a military offensive in May to recapture areas of Abyan province in Yemen, but militants have struck back with a series of bombings and assassinations.