Al-Qa’ida executes Yemeni man accused of gathering information for US drone strikes

The man's body was found tied to the goal posts of a football pitch

Yemen is racked by lawlessness and violence (AFP/Getty)

Al-Qa’ida militants shot dead a man in southeastern Yemen on Thursday for allegedly acting as a spy for the United States.

Residents said the man was found shot dead and his body chained to goal posts on a sandy football pitch in the town of Shahr in Hadramout province.

He had allegedly been giving the United States information used to carry out drone strikes against militants, witnesses and the SITE monitoring service said

Pictures posted online showed his body, dressed in Yemeni traditional clothes hanging by its arms from a bar suspended from a football goal, on which a black al-Qa’ida flag also hung. A crowd of onlookers stood nearby.

The man was captured a year ago and accused of working for American intelligence and helping to guide drone strikes in 2012 and 2013, SITE reported.

SITE said he had been killed by al-Qa’ida's Ansar al-Sharia group.

In a video titled "An American Spy in the Arabian Peninsula" posted online, a man identifying himself as Amin Abdullah Mohammed al-Mu'alimi confessed to assisting US intelligence.

He said he had been born in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, but recruited in Sweden, and joined a security training course led by a Saudi intelligence officer.

Yemen, which shares a long border with top oil producer Saudi Arabia and receives military support from Washington, has been racked by lawlessness and violence since 2011, when mass protests forced Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down as president.

The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against al-Qa’ida.

Yemen is among a handful of countries where the United States acknowledges using drones, although it does not comment on the practice.

Additional reporting by Reuters