Al-Qaida’s top bombmaker escaped drone strike, says Yemeni official

US drone attack killed cleric and propagandist but not al-Qaida bomb expert, says source Al-Qaida’s top bombmaker in Yemen did not die in a drone strike on a convoy, a senior Yemeni official said, a report that dashed the hopes of US officials. The US drone strike on 30 September killed US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and American propagandist Samir Khan, who published an English-language web magazine that spouted al-Qaida’s anti-western ideology. US intelligence officials had said it appeared that bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri was among the dead. But the Yemeni official listed those whose bodies had been identified and said Asiri was not one of them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Saudi-born Asiri, 29, who is of Pakistani descent, was tied to the so-called underwear bomb used in an attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009. hit an abandoned school. Global terrorism al-Qaida Yemen Middle East guardian.co.uk

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