SANA'A: The Yemen Embassy in Washington said on Tuesday that a top al-Qaeda commander had been killed during an airstrike conducted by Yemeni air force pilots against a convoy in Yemen's eastern province of Mareb. The embassy reported that Mohammed Saeid Al-Umda, alias Ghareeb Al-Taizi, was killed on Sunday when an airstrike targeted a militant convoy in al-Sanda district near Obeida valley. Al-Umda was ranked 4th on Yemen's most-wanted list. He provided logistical and financial support to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The militant escaped from prison in 2006, where he was serving a sentence for supporting an attack on a French oil tanker. In 2008 he was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison for targeting Yemen's energy infrastructure, the embassy said. Umda was trained under Osama bin Laden's supervision in Afghanistan and was involved in the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen. Lately, US drone activity has dramatically increased in Yemen, targeting al-Qaeda hideouts, killing and wounding scores of them. US does not comment on its drone program, however, reports in the popular media say the US has carried out 21 airstrikes in Yemen since the beginning of May 2011. Eleven of those strikes are said have taken place so far in 2012.
