Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s front group, Ansar al Sharia, claimed that its media emir, Ibrahim al Bana, was not killed in a US Predator airstrike that took place on Oct. 14 in Shabwa province. From the Yemen Post:
In a leaflet it distributed in Shabwa province, Ansar Sharia extremist group based in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, denied that terror suspect Ibrahim Banna was killed in the UD drone attack two weeks ago.
Banna was considered the top media officer for AQAP and his killing was hailed by the Yemen government. He was suspected killed during a US drone attack in Shabwa two weeks ago.
If al Bana is indeed alive, this will make the strike that killed Abdul Rahman al Awlaki all the more controversial. The media has essentially accepted the al Awlaki family’s narrative that Abdul Rahman was an innocent teen who left the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in an attempt to find his father. US officials have justified Abdul Rahman’s death by saying that he was killed because he “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” according to TIME.
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