( CNN ) -- Hardly anyone has been rumored dead as often as al Qaeda 's No . 2 man in Yemen . Said al-Shihri has emerged from the aftermath of drone strikes in the past to lambast the CIA for trying to kill him . It seems it finally did . A message on jihadi websites announced his death Tuesday . It was purportedly posted by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP ) . It did not say when or where al-Shihri died , just that a U.S. drone took his life sometime after the first week of April . Al-Shihri 's career as a terrorist leader has its roots in the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . He was released in 2008 to his native Saudi Arabia under the condition that he not travel outside the country . He quickly disobeyed the order to join a fellow former Guantanamo inmate with AQAP in Yemen , where he climbed to the number two slot in 2009 . The CIA promptly put drones in the air with him in its crosshairs , and Yemeni authorities erroneously reported deadly direct hits . Shortly afterward , al-Shihri would pop up on jihadist websites to correct the reports . The occurrences repeated themselves -- most recently , in January . In April , al-Shihri issued a threat to the Saudi royal family for allegedly conspiring with American `` crusaders '' against `` the faithful people of Yemen . '' The jihadi statement said the airstrike killed him sometime after that .
Hardly anyone has been rumored dead as often as al-Shihri . He was once a prisoner in Guantanamo . He was released in 2008 to his native Saudi Arabia . Comment: