Al-Qaeda said Thursday that one of its top militants, Harith al-Nadhari who threatened more attacks on France after the Charlie Hebdo killings, died in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Nadhari and three other militants were killed in a January 31 "crusader American drone strike against their car in the Saeed area of Shabwa province in southern Yemen," Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said on Twitter.

Nadhari had threatened France with further attacks like those in Paris on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket that killed 17 people between January 7 and 9.