Suspected al-Qaeda chief killed in Yemen

Yemeni forces killed a suspected local al-Qaeda chief on Monday in a clash at his home in the southern province of Abyan, security officials have revealed.

A Yemeni soldier also died and another was wounded when troops stormed the residence of an alleged insurgent identified by a police statement as Abdullah Saeed al-Hubeibat.

Two other suspected militants were wounded in the firefight and a third was arrested, officials told AFP.

This latest death of an al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] leader follows two US drone attacks last week that killed a pair of the militant group's local chiefs. Local commanders Abdallah al-Sanaani and Abu Khaled al-Sanaani were killed on two consecutive days.

AQAP's attacks mainly target the Yemeni government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but last year the group also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Paris office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.  

According to US officials, AQAP are currently one of the most dangerous security threats in the Middle East.