Ex-Gitmo Detainee Becomes Deputy Leader in al-Qaida Branch
A former Guantanamo detainee has emerged as the deputy leader of al-Qaida’s Yemeni branch and is a suspect in a September bombing near a U.S. embassy.
The New York Times said an Internet statement identified the Yemeni deputy as a former Guantanamo detainee. An American counterterrorism official and a Yemeni journalist said the leader touted on the website was former detainee Said Ali al-Shihri.
At Guantanamo, Shihri had claimed he had no knowledge of terrorists and denied meeting with extremists in Iran, saying he had traveled there for his family’s carpet business, according to the story.
Shihri is now a suspect in a September car bombing outside the U.S. embassy in Yemen’s capital that killed 16 people, including six attackers, the story says.
The Times says the emergence of Shihri “underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year.”
