Al-Qaida’s Yemeni branch says leader Khalid al-Batarfi is dead in unclear circumstances
DUBAI, EMIRATES UNITED ARAB
The leader of Yemen’s branch of al-Qaida is dead, the militant group announced late Sunday, without giving details.
Khalid al-Batarfi had a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government for leading the group, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, through years in which he was imprisoned, freed in a jailbreak, and governed forces in Yemen amid that country’s grinding war.
Although the group known by the acronym AQAP is believed to have been weakened in recent years by infighting and suspected U.S. drone strikes killing its leaders, it has long been considered the most dangerous branch of the extremist group still operating after the killing of founder Osama bin Laden.
Al-Qaida released a video showing al-Batarfi wrapped in a white funeral shroud and al-Qaida’s black-and-white flag.
Militants offered no details on the cause of his death and there was no clear sign of trauma visible on his face. Al-Batarfi was believed to be in his early 40s.
“Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm, immigrated, garrisoned, and waged jihad for His sake,” the militants said in the video, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
The group made the announcement on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim holy fasting month that Yemen will begin Monday.
In the announcement, the group said Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki would take over as its leader. The U.S. has a $6 million bounty on him, saying al-Awlaki “has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The Yemeni branch of al-Qaida has been seen by Washington as the terror network’s most dangerous branch since its attempt in 2009 to bomb a commercial airliner over the United States. It claimed responsibility for the 2015 deadly attack in Paris on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. But its overseas operations have waned in recent years.
“Although in decline, AQAP remains the most effective terrorist group in Yemen with intent to conduct operations in the region and beyond,” a recent United Nations report on al-Qaida said.
Estimates provided to the U.N. put AQAP’s total forces between 3,000 and 4,000 active fighters and passive members. The group raises money by robbing banks and money exchange shops, smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies and conducting ransom operations, according to the U.N.
Al-Batarfi took over as the head of the branch in February 2020. He succeeded leader Qassim al-Rimi, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike ordered by then-President Donald Trump. Al-Rimi had claimed responsibility for the 2019 attack at the U.S. Naval Air Station Pensacola in which a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.
Under al-Batarfi, AQAP fell further under the influence of al-Qaida fighter Saif al-Adl, now believed to have led the militant group after the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan in 2022. That came as Yemen has been locked in a war between the Houthi rebels, who hold the capital, Sanaa, and a Saudi-led coalition backing the country’s exiled government based in Aden.
“Since 2020, Saif al-Adel has been able to convince al-Batarfi of his strategic approach, focused on confronting Western states and their allies in Yemen — the Saudi-led coalition, the Aden-based government, the United Arab Emirates and its allies — rather than confronting the Iranianbacked Houthi movement,” a 2023 report by the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies said.
Al-Adl is believed to be in Iran, part of a longtime al-Qaida presence in the Islamic republic. That has long been denied by Tehran but backed up by documents seized in the 2011 U.S. raid in Pakistan that killed bin Laden, who orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.
Al-Batarfi’s ties to al-Adl had strained relations in AQAP, experts say. However, it has seen the militants become armed with bomb-carrying drones — something the Houthis now use to target shipping in the Red Sea amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
AQAP “developed unmanned aerial systems capabilities, establishing a specialized drone unit, with operational training from the Houthis,” a U.N. report from January says. “It prioritizes liberating its prisoners to replenish ranks; in September, the Houthis released several AQAP members and explosives experts.”
The Shiite Zaydi Houthis have previously denied working with AQAP, a Sunni extremist group. However, AQAP targeting of the Houthis has dropped in recent years.