Turki, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, has said the ministry has no information to confirm or deny reports that Saeed Al-Shehri, the second man in the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Organization, was killed in Yemen last Wednesday. Foreign news agencies had quoted a “Saudi official” as saying that Al-Shehri had died on Al-Abyadh Mountain in Lawdar, north Abyan, while preparing explosives. The incident was also said to have left five other Al-Qaeda members injured. “We have received no information confirming the reports of Saeed Al-Shehri's death,” Al-Turki told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. The head of security in the Abyan province, Abdul Razzaq Al-Marawani, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette by telephone Sunday that the reports were “merely rumors”. He said that recent campaigns by the Yemeni security services targeting sites believed to have an Al-Qaeda presence had led to detentions of members of the organization, but would neither confirm nor deny whether any Saudi nationals were among them. Saeed Al-Shehri entered Yemeni territory shortly before he was named on the Saudi Ministry of Interior's list of 85 wanted terrorists in February, 2009. He had been put through the Al-Munasaha terrorist rehabilitation program after returning from Guantanamo Detention Center in Cuba, only to later found with the Yemeni Nasser Al-Wuhaishi the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Organization.
