Some reports suggest al-Shihri was actually killed in October Yemen's Supreme National Security Committee has announced the death of Saeed al-Shihri, a significant leader in the al-Qaeda insurgency currently sweeping the country .
Yemeni authorities claimed al-Shihri, also known as Abu Sufyan Alazdi, was killed in a joint US-Yemeni counter-terrorism operation in Saada on November 28.
Al-Shihri was the co-founder and deputy emir of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP].
"The terrorist al-Shihri was buried by the al-Qaeda network at a secret location in Yemen," a government statement announced.
Last October, al-Shihri, who was born in Saudi Arabia, denied a similar Defence Ministry announcement in September that he had been killed in an army operation, via an audio message posted on an Islamist Internet forum.
The radical leader was released from America’s Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba in 2007 before being flown to Saudi where he undertook a rehabilitation programme.
Al-Shihri then disappeared, later resurfacing as AQAP’s deputy in Yemen.
However, contrary reports have suggested the operation in which al-Shihri was allegedly killed took place a month earlier than the reported date, after the Yemen’s Defence Ministry failed to report any counter-terrorism operations in Saada on November 28.
Authorities instead reported an attack on October 28. Military sources told Arabstoday at the time that a prominent AQAP leader -- believed to be al-Shihri -- had been seriously injured in the attack.
AQAP, led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi, is classified by the United States as the most active and deadly arm of al-Qaeda's global terrorism network.
In October 2000, AQAP militants attacked US Navy destroyer the USS Cole in Yemen's port of Aden, killing 17 sailors and wounding 40 more.
The group continues to launch deadly attacks on Western and Yemeni government targets across the country.