Senior Al-Qaida figure and Awlaki’s son among 24 killed in drone strike in Yemen 
 
From Will at The Other News:

(AlArabiya).The head of the media department of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and six other militants were killed in an air raid on militant outposts in Yemen, and gunmen retaliated by blowing up a gas export pipeline, Yemeni officials and residents said on Saturday.

The Yemeni Defence Ministry said Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian national, died in a raid by Yemeni war planes on militant positions in Shabwa province in southern Yemen late on FridayBanna is the second senior AQAP figure to be killed, after a U.S. drone on September 30 killing a key leader of AQAP, the U.S.-born militant Anwar al- Awlaki. 

A Yemeni official described Banna, 55, as one of the most dangerous militants on their wanted list.Awlaki's son is also among the 24 militants killed in air strikes targeting al-Qaeda in Yemen, local officials said.“Abderrahman Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in the raid,” a tribal source told AFP, adding that he had received confirmation from the militant-controlled Yemeni hospital where the dead and wounded from Friday evening’s strikes were taken.Residents and local officials said they believed the raids were conducted by foreign aircraft.

Banna left his native country to Yemen in 1993 to work as a teacher but never came back. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Sharia and Law from al-Azhar University and had a background of joining Salafist groups back in Egypt. He also trained Abu Ayoub al-Masry, the Qaeda leader in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is thought to be killed in April.

In 2010 Banna was arrested but through multiple prison breaks that rocked Yemen, the Qaeda senior figure managed to escape. Meanwhile, unidentified assailants, believed to be militants, later blew up a gas pipeline which transports gas from Maarib province to Belhaf port on the Arabian Sea.

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