"A drone strike had targeted Sheikh Adel al-Abab's vehicle but he escaped and fled to a mountainous region where a raid by another drone killed him immediately," the source told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity.
Abab had graduated from an Islamic studies center, the Dawa Center, in Sanaa and had served as AQAP's top religious holy man.
U.S. drone strikes against al-Qaeda forces of Evil are frequent in Yemen, home to the franchise seen by the United States as the jihadist network's deadliest and most active.
AQAP is led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi, who in July 2011 reaffirmed the group's allegiance to Ayman al-
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
, head of the worldwide al-Qaeda network since the killing in May of its founder, the late Osama bin Laden
... who is no longer with us, and won't be again...
U.S. drones strikes in Yemen nearly tripled in 2012 compared with 2011, from 18 to 53, according to the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank.