The USA had offered a reward
Al-Qaeda leader killed in Yemen
March 11, 2024, 8:56 a.m
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Khalid al-Batarfi took over the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda after his predecessor fell victim to a drone attack. Now a similar fate befalls him. How he dies is unclear. The declining terrorist organization must choose a new leader.
Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen has announced the death of its leader, Khalid al-Batarfi. The group distributed a video on Sunday evening (local time) that showed him wrapped in a shroud. The cause of death was not disclosed. Al-Batarfi is believed to have been in his early 40s.
Allah took al-Batarfi’s soul, the video said, as reported by the US non-governmental organization Site Intelligence Group. Al-Qaeda in Yemen made the announcement on the eve of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which begins in Yemen this Monday. It was also said that Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki would be the successor at the head of the organization. The US has put a $6 million bounty on his head, citing the fact that al-Awlaki had publicly called for attacks on the United States and its allies.
The USA had offered a reward of five million US dollars (4.5 million euros) for information about his predecessor. Al-Batarfi assumed leadership of al-Qaeda in Yemen in February 2020 after Kassim al-Rimi was killed in a US drone strike.
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The group, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has long been the terror network’s most dangerous branch, remaining active after the killing of founder Osama bin Laden in 2011. The group tried to blow up a passenger plane over the United States in 2009 and claimed responsibility for the attack on the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in Paris in 2015, which left twelve people dead. However, attacks abroad have decreased in recent years.
The offshoot is in decline, according to a current United Nations report on al-Qaeda. However, the organization remains the most effective terrorist group in Yemen and intends to operate in the region and beyond. According to estimates available to the United Nations, the group has a total of 3,000 to 4,000 active fighters and passive members. She obtains money by raiding banks and money exchange offices as well as through weapons smuggling, counterfeiting and ransom campaigns.
Under Al-Batarfi, the group came further under the influence of al-Qaeda fighter Saif al-Adl, who was the actual leader of the militant group after the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone strike in Afghanistan in 2022. Al-Adl is said to be in Iran, although this is denied by the government in Tehran.