Updated

Al-Qaida's Yemeni branch has killed two men accused of spying for the United States and hung their bodies off a bridge.

Witnesses say al-Qaida gunmen in the southern city of Mukalla read out charges before shooting the two men, one of whom was accused of guiding the U.S. drone that killed commander Nasr al-Ansi and a media specialist known as Muhannad Ghalab in April.

The killings came a day after al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, said its leader, Nasir al-Wahishi, was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week.

Al-Qaida captured Mukalla in April after Yemen's army splintered between allies and opponents of Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who captured the capital, Sanaa, last year.