Following a massive two-day airstrike against al-Qaeda positions in Yemen, government officials have confirmed they are now trying to identify all the terror militants who were taken out during the attack.
It was reported in Tuesday that an estimated 55 Islamists were killed, among whom several key al-Qaeda leaders.
Security officials have not confirmed whether Nasser al-Wuhayshi and Ibrahim al-Asiri were among the dead.
Al-Wuhayshi, a former secretary to Ossama bin Laden was identified by the United States as a main target when he assumed direction of al-Qaeda Yemen, taking over where bin Laden had left off in the Arabian Peninsula. Known at times as Abu-Bashir, al-Wuhayshi was one of Osama bin Laden’s closest associates, a top lieutenant who worked with the terror ringleader in the 1990s.
Al-Wuhayshi rose within the ranks of al-Qaeda Yemen in 2006 when he successfully staged his escape from prison alongside 22 other inmates. As per noted by Gregory Johnsen in his book, The Last Refuge: Yemen, al Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia, al-Wuhayshi emerged as something of a spiritual leader to al Qaeda militants in the prison.
In March 2014, al-Wuhayshi appeared in a video at the largest al-Qaeda gathering ever staged, defiant of the authorities. Addressing his supporters he warned that the time to “remove the cross” had come, a tirade both US and Yemen understood as a direct and imminent threat.
Known as al-Qaeda's bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri is believed to have helped build explosive devices which are virtually undetectable to the authorities. Al-Asiri, who was born in 1982, allegedly recruited his own brother to carry out 2009 failed attack against Saudi Arabia Deputy Interior Ministry.