Al Qaeda leader hiding in Yemen: report

CAIRO - An al Qaeda leader who was reported killed in Pakistan, is alive and hiding in Yemen, the regional newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Thursday.

The newspaper said Fahd al-Quso al-Awlaki met with its reporters in a mountainous area in Yemen’s southeastern Shabwa province, where he is being protected by the al-Awalek tribe.

Al-Awlaki, who was photographed by the paper, expressed “surprise” at reports of his death, reportedly in a drone attack in Pakistan last September.

“My presence in Yemen is better in light of the crisis with the Yemeni government,” he said.

The Yemeni government, with US military and financial assistance, has been battling Al Qaeda militants on its territory.

Al-Awlaki did not deny or confirm the existence of Al Qaeda camps near his hideout, but said that a US-backed airstrike in the area last year killed five people.

Earlier this month, the US State Department classified al-Awlaki as a global terrorist. He is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) top 10 most wanted list for his involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden in 2000.

The US is offering a $5-million bounty for the discovery of his whereabouts.

Al-Awlaki was arrested in Yemen shorted after the Sep 11 attacks in 2001, but escaped in 2003. He was arrested again in 2004 and released by judicial order in 2007.