US operation kills Al Qaeda man who claimed Paris attacks-sources

A US operation has killed the senior Al-Qaeda figure who issued the claim of responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, according to US sources familiar with the matter and a reported video posted by the group.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said that its ideologue Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi was killed with his eldest son and other fighters in Yemen in a US air strike, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which cited the online video. Reuters could not independently verify the video. 

Ansi's death would suggest the covert US drone program against the Yemen branch of the global militant group is continuing, despite the evacuation of American military advisers from the country amid a worsening civil war. 

The US sources said Washington believed Ansi was the AQAP commander of northern Yemen and that no civilians had been killed. 

Ansi, an ideologue and former fighter, had appeared in several of the group's videos. In a message on Jan. 14, he said of the Jan. 7 attack in Paris that the "one who chose the target, laid the plan and financed the operation is the leadership of the organisation," without naming an individual. 

A week later he called for lone-wolf attacks in Western countries like America, Britain, Canada and France, as such operations were "better and more harmful." 

White House spokesman Eric Schultz declined to comment on Ansi's reported death. 

"I'll review what we said previously, which is we continue to actively monitor terrorist threats emanating from Yemen. We have capabilities postured in the area to address them," Schultz told reporters aboard Air Force One. 

In the Paris attack, 17 people, including journalists and police, were killed in three days of...