Official: Al Qaeda bomb maker wasn't killed

WASHINGTON - A top Yemeni official says al Qaeda's chief bomb maker in Yemen was not killed in the U.S. drone strike on a convoy two days ago.

U.S. intelligence officials had said that bomb maker Ibrahim Al-Asiri may have been killed.

But on Sunday a Yemeni official said Al-Asiri was not among those who died in the drone attack that killed U.S.-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Al-Asiri has been linked to the bomb that authorities allege a Nigerian man tried to detonate aboard a Detroit-bound plane in 2009. The Yemeni official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

In addition to al-Awlaki, another American-born member of al Qaeda died in the strike Friday: Samir Khan, the co-editor of an online English-language magazine that had urged American Muslims to carry out attacks.