Ibrahim al-Rubaish, the top cleric for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed over the weekend in Yemen, the group said in a statement posted online.
Al-Rubaish, a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay who had a $5 million American bounty on his head, was hit by a "crusader strike," the organization said, "after he spent almost two decades carrying out jihad against America and its agents." The U.S. has described Al-Rubaish as being behind the "justification for attacks conducted by AQAP" and the "senior advisor for AQAP operational planning."
A senior White House official told ABC News that he could not comment on reports coming out of Yemen, but did say the U.S. continues to "actively monitor terrorist threats emanating from Yemen, and we have capabilities postured in the area to address them."
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