Al Qaeda Claims Top Official Who Organized Charlie Hebdo Attacks Killed by U.S. Airstrike

Al Qaeda's Yemen branch claimed Thursday that one of its senior officials who orchestrated the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris this year has died in a recent U.S.-led airstrike.

According to the SITE Intelligence group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula recently posted an online video announcing that one of the group's senior officials, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, was killed in a recent U.S.-led airstrike along with his eldest son while in Yemen.

Al-Ansi is known for releasing a video after the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris, France encouraging jihadist sympathizers to carry out attacks on their own home soil.

"If he is capable to wage individual jihad in the Western countries that fight Islam -- such as America, Britain, France, Canada and others of the countries that represent the head of disbelief in waging war against Islam […] if he is capable of that, then that is better and more harmful," al-Ansi said in the video released earlier this year.

"But if that is impossible, and he is able to serve his brothers on the front lines, then let him immigrate, for it is better," the top al Qaeda official added.

According to CNN, a U.S. official has also confirmed that al-Ansi was killed, although they would not confirm if he was killed as a result of a drone strike.

Government officials have yet to confirm when and where exactly al-Ansi was killed, although it has been confirmed that he was killed along with several other al-Qaeda fighters.