al Qaeda leader smote by drone

 Government sources say a drone has killed a prominent al Qaeda leader linked to an attack on a French oil tanker.

Yemen's embassy in Washington said on Tuesday that Mohammed Saeed al-Umda, convicted in 2005 of involvement in the 2002 attack on the Limburg oil tanker, had been killed in an air strike on his convoy in the oil-producing province of Maarib on Sunday. It did not specify whether it was a U.S. strike.

Umda, described by the embassy as Yemen's fourth most-wanted man, had received military training under Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and was in charge of the group's finances, a security source said.

The United States has repeatedly used drones to target suspected al Qaeda militants, who have been emboldened by a year of political upheaval in the impoverished state.