SANAA: Yemeni security forces have killed an Al-Qaeda kingpin in Shabwa province in intensive operations against the group believed behind the botched bombing of a US airliner, an official said on Wednesday. “Abdullah Mehdar was killed last night by security forces which had besieged the house he hid in,” provincial Governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told reporters. Mehdar was the leader of an Al-Qaeda cell in al-Houta region, in the province of Shabwa, 600 km east of Sanaa. Security forces were hunting for the remaining members of the cell, Ahmadi said.