Six al Qaeda members died in an air strike in northern Yemen on Friday. "Two cars carrying eight dangerous al Qaeda members were hit in an area between Saada and al-Jouf," a Yemeni security official told Reuters. "Two may have survived and escaped."
"The group included Qassem al-Remi, Ayed al-Shabwani, Ammar al-Waeli, and Saleh al-Teys," the official said. The four were wanted by the Yemeni and American security services. "It is believed that Qassem al-Remi and Ayed al-Shabwani were killed in the air strike."
Al-Shabwani was one of the most dangerous al Qaeda members who provided a hideout for other activists at his farm in Maarib, where their training took place, the official added.
Al-Remi, born in 1977, was also known as Abu Hurayrah al-Sana'ani. He was arrested in connection with a series of explosions in the capital Sana’a in 2002. Al-Remi, was charged with being part of the cell that was planning to attack five embassies in the Yemeni capital, SABA news agency reported.
He was sentenced to five years in prison on 30 August 2004, which was later upheld by the state security court in February 2005. Al-Remi, was one of 23 men who escaped in the 3 February 2006 prison-break in Yemen, along with other prominent al-Qaeda members. On 21 June 2007, al-Remi posted an audio statement in an Islamist website announcing that fellow escapee Nasir al-Wuhayshi was the new head of al-Qaeda in Yemen.
On 2 August 2007, Yemen announced that al-Remi was part of a 10-man cell that was responsible for the 2 July suicide bombing in Marib province, east Yemen, which killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers. Last year, the Yemeni authorities accused him of being responsible for the running of an al-Qaeda training camp in the southern province of Abyan. Al-Remi, who was considered the No. 3 leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was the target of a Yemeni forces-launched air strike on 17 December 2009 but the Yemeni authorities said later that he had survived the raid that killed 34 al-Qaida men.
