Al Qaeda militants seized control of the main city and the capital of Yemen's Abyan governorate on Thursday within a few hours after the killing of the group's leader.

Al Qaeda militants control Abyan’s provincial capital Zinjibar and the nearby town of Jaar, Aden Alghad newspaper said.

The progress was made by the terrorist group after its senior operative with a $5 million US bounty on his head, Jalal Belaidi, was killed in one of two suspected US drone strikes in the war-torn country.

According to the newspaper, the terrorist members spread into the capital city, erected checkpoints and marked the public institutions’ building with the group’s back flag.

The city has fallen to the group militants without firing a bullet in a few hours after Belaidi, alias Abu Hamza, a top commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed along with two guards when their vehicle was hit in the Maraqesha area of Abyan province.

Source: MENA