Vaporized.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen announced on Thursday that one of its top clerics was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month in the country’s south.

The announcement came amid lingering uncertainty about the impact of Yemen’s current political deadlock on the U.S. counterterrorism campaign.

The slain cleric was identified as Sheikh Harith al-Nadhari, said to be in his 30s. Often seen in a white turban, he was among the group’s few public faces frequently featured in online religious lectures. He also recently appeared in an al-Qaida video praising last month’s deadly attack at the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, claimed responsibility for the Paris attack in which two gunmen killed 12 people.

Al-Nadhari was killed along with three others on Jan. 31, when a drone-fired missile blew up a vehicle in which the four were travelling in the southern province of Shabwa, according to the AQAP statement, posted on one of its official Twitter accounts.