AQAP Bombmaker Asiri Wounded in Drone Strike?

The Washington Free Beacon (citing a Yemeni news outlet) is reporting that Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the AQAP bombmaker who has been called the most dangerous man in the world, was wounded in a recent drone strike in Yemen:

A Saudi national known to be a key al Qaeda bomb maker was wounded during a U.S.-led drone strike in Yemen, according to a Yemeni news report.

Ibrahim al Asiri, the bomb maker, was targeted during a missile strike launched from a U.S.-operated armed drone in southern Yemen that killed two other al Qaeda terrorists, the online Yemeni news outlet Al Watan reported Sunday.

A U.S. official had no public comment but urged caution regarding claims that al Asiri was dead.

The drone attack took place in Yemen’s southernmost Lahij Governorate that borders the Gulf of Aden. Covert, U.S. military-operated drones carried out the strike. The United States operates a drone base located in southern Saudi Arabia.

There have been nine drone strikes in Yemen since July 27, which according to the AP, have killed 38 suspected militants.

This is very good news, if true, but should be taken with a grain of salt, as the Drone Wars abound with premature reports about the demise of targeted individuals, and Asiri himself was reported to have been killed before in 2011, only to emerge unscathed.

Stay tuned . . . 

Has the U.S. finally hit the "Most Dangerous Man in the World"?