A MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle prepares to land after a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson)
A senior Saudi leader of al-Qaeda was killed along with his bodyguard in a recent suspected United States drone strike on Yemen, security and local government sources told AFP on March 1.
A security official identified the leader for the news agency as Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, who is also known as Abdulaziz al-Adnani. On February 26, a drone strike targeted a house in the central Yemeni province of Marib that al-Tamimi had recently rented. The unnamed official said that the strike was “apparently American.”
Al-Tamimi headed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) leadership council and acted as a judge for the terrorist group. He personally announced the death of AQAP’s top Yemeni leader Qasim al-Raymi and the appointment of Saudi national Khalid Batarfi as the new “Emir” of the group in 2020.
The new drone strike came a month after three alleged AQAP terrorists, including the group’s top Saudi bomb maker Hassan al-Hadrami, were killed in a similar suspected U.S. attack on a car in Marib.
AQAP resurfaced in Marib and other parts of Yemen after the beginning of the Saudi-led military intervention against the Houthis (Ansar Allah). The terrorist group’s insurgency gained momentum in the last few months, with several attacks being reported against Saudi-backed forces in the country’s southern region.
The recent drone strikes are clearly meant to put pressure on AQAP leadership and contain the group’s growing influence in Yemen.
The cabal found someone willing to work for less…
Saudi-backed government are hypocrites. STC are commie separatists. AQAP are Wahhabi terrorists. Houthis and only Houthis.