国际英语新闻：Al-Qaida says its fund raiser killed by Yemeni forces

SANAA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said one of its senior leaders who was responsible for raising money to fund the group's military operations in Yemen and beyond has been killed by Yemeni security forces, AQAP's media outlet reported on Saturday.

Al-Malahim Media Foundation, the media arm of the Yemen-based AQAP, identified the militant as Ibrahim Saleh Mujahid al-Khalifa (alias Abi Jandal al-Qisaimy), saying the militant is a Saudi national.

"Al-Qisaimy was responsible for collecting and raising money from inside Saudi Arabia and transferring them into al-Qaida wing in Yemen," al-Malahim said in a statement posted on the Internet.

It added that "al-Qisaimy was also the coordinator behind smuggling groups of wanted Saudi militants to Yemen through the Saudi-Yemeni joint border."

"Al-Qisaimy was killed in clashes with the Yemeni security forces when he led his Saudi-Yemeni group of al-Qaida fighters to attack a government security checkpoint in a southern Yemeni province," said the statement.

AQAP's statement did not provide the specific date of his killing, but said al-Qisaimy and several other al-Qaida fighters survived the Yemeni anti-terror air raids on southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa in December last year and January this year.

Xinhua was not able to independently verify the veracity of this statement.