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.
