Al Qaeda senior cleric killed in US drone strike in Yemen

A senior member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) has been killed in a US drone strike, the militant group confirmed on Thursday.

Hareth al-Nadhari was an influential ideologue within Aqap and was well known as a talented orator and a critic of Isis.

Aqap claimed responsibility for the attack on staff at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris last month and Nadhari had promised further attacks.

The cleric was among four Aqap members who were killed in a drone strike on January 31, the militant group said.

Yemen does not currently have a government but the US has continued to launch drone attacks on suspected Aqap members across the country.

Yemen's former president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi stepped down last month, leaving the US without its ally in its fight against what is considered to be one of Qaeda's strongest international franchises.

Hadi has before said that he approved each drone strike before it was carried out by the US.

Yemen's government had previously voted unanimously to halt the use of unmanned aircraft to attack Qaeda militants, but the vote has had little impact on the strikes.