Yemen says a Saudi national freed by U.S. authorities from detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and who later rose to second in command of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has died.

A government statement Thursday said Said al-Shihri died of wounds sustained in a counter-terrorism operation in late November. The Yemeni state news agency said he had been in a coma since then. Neither the agency nor a statement Thursday from the Supreme National Security Committee gave the date of death, but a leading Saudi newspaper [Ukaz] said it occurred in late December.

A contingent of soldiers from Burkina Faso has deployed to central Mali, becoming the first African troops to link up with French and Malian forces fighting al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants.

Malian officials said Thursday about 150 soldiers from Burkina Faso had arrived in Markala, a town about 250 kilometers from the capital, Bamako.

VOA correspondent Idrissa Fall, who is in Bamako, says the soldiers are gathering near the base that French forces used to help re-take the town of Diabaly.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified Wednesday before a Senate Committee about last year's attack on the U.S. mission in the Benghazi, Libya, in a hearing that included sharp criticism from lawmakers on her handling of the incident.

Among her harshest critics on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was one-time Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain. "There are many questions [about Benghazi] that are unanswered and the answers frankly that you have this morning are not satisfactory," he said.

A reporter on the ground in northern Mali says most Islamist militants have fled the city of Gao since last week, when French warplanes bombed their positions.

The VOA reporter in Gao said Tuesday that some militants have been spotted in the area - driving in trucks or riding motorbikes or hiding out in trees. But he adds it is clear the Islamists are not numerous or organized enough to continue applying the strict Sharia law they imposed after taking control of the city last April.

Leaders in Pakistan are outraged at reported U.S. plans to continue controversial drone strikes against suspected al-Qaida-linked sanctuaries on Pakistani soil. They are calling it "close to a perpetual war," and say it is exactly opposite to what President Barack Obama stated in his inaugural speech on Monday.

U.S. drone strikes on targets in Pakistani regions along the border with Afghanistan remain highly controversial and are deeply unpopular in Pakistan.

The United States has provided airlift support to the Algerian government in the wake of recent terrorist attacks at a natural gas plant, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters.

Little confirmed that U.S. C-130 and C-17 aircraft configured for medical evacuation support moved wounded Americans and others from Algeria to Naval Air Station Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily and to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, respectively.

Syrian rights activists say the death toll from a suicide car bombing in the central province of Hama late Monday has risen to at least 42 people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack targeted a building used by pro-government militiamen in the town of Salamiyah. It said civilians were among the dead.

Syrian state news agency SANA gave a death toll of 32 people and blamed the bombing on terrorists whom it says are behind a 22-month rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.

The Nigerian-based owners of an oil tanker seized last week in the Ivory Coast says the vessel has been released.

Brila Energy chairman Rowaye Jubril says the pirates discharged the vessel's entire cargo,about 5,000 tons of fuel, while the 16 crew members were locked in the ship's dining room.

Ivorian port officials say the tanker was seized late last week as it prepared to unload at the port in Abidjan, the country's commercial capital.

It is unclear where the tanker was released, but officials say it was last located off the coast of Ghana.

For years, unmarked ammunition has been turning up in some of Africa's bloodiest conflict zones — Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ivory Coast. After a six-year investigation, independent arms investigators with Britain-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR) say they have figured out where the ammunition is being made: Iran.

According to their December 2012 report, “The Distribution of Iranian Ammunition in Africa," CAR researchers say Iranian ammunition is circulating widely in Africa despite a United Nations arms embargo on Iran.