Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula Confirms Death of Leader Khalid Batarfi, Names Successor

The SITE Intelligence Group said on Sunday that Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen has announced the death of its leader, Khalid Batarfi.

According to the monitor service, Batarfi's body was shown in footage released by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), wrapped in a jihadist group's flag and placed in a burial shroud.

Al-Qaeda Announces Batarfi's Death

Yemeni fighters loyal to the government backed by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in the country ride in the back of a pickup truck with mounted heavy machine gun while closing in on a suspected location of an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader during their the offensive in the Mesini Valley in the vast province of Hadramawt on February 21, 2018. - Yemeni special forces trained by the United Arab Emirates -- a key member of a Saudi-led alliance fighting alongside Yemen's government forces -- had in the previous week launched the offensive, codenamed "Al-Faisal", against Al-Qaeda cells in oil-rich Hadramawt province. Two soldiers were killed on February 17 in the offensive, which targets the Mesini and Amed Valleys in Hadramawt and which are critical in the control over Yemen's southeastern coastline.
(Photo : SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images)

According to SITE, AQAP did not provide Batarfi's cause of death. "God took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm, immigrated, garrisoned, and waged jihad," SITE quoted an AQAP veteran as saying of Batarfi in the nearly 15-minute video.

In February 2020, AQAP declared that Batarfi had taken over as its commander after Qassim al-Rimi, the group's previous leader, was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

The US has recognized Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch as the most dangerous faction of the global jihadist network. In 2018, the State Department designated Batarfi a "global terrorist."

SITE said the group has appointed Saad bin Atef Al-Awlaki as its new chief. Al-Awlaki was last seen in a video that was aired on February 23 urging Sunni tribesmen to join AQAP.

The Sunni extremist group thrived in the instability of war since 2014 between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Furthermore, AQAP has conducted operations against both government and Houthi forces in Yemen.

It has also carried out assaults overseas, including the 2015 attack on the offices of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo and the 2019 mass shooting at a US naval station in Florida, in which a Saudi Air Force officer killed three American sailors.

Suspected AQAP Attack in Yemen Kills 5 Fighters

An attack in southern Yemen has killed at least five militants loyal to a secessionist group in the recent assault blamed on an affiliate of Al-Qaeda.

Southern Transitional Council's spokesman, Mohammed Al-Naqib, said the attack occurred on Tuesday in Wadi Omran in the province of Abyan, which also injured four militants from the Southern Armed Forces.

The United Arab Emirates supports the separatist council, which controls most of southern Yemen. It is at odds with the internationally recognized government, as it advocated the independence of the region originally South Yemen, which joined North Yemen to establish the Republic of Yemen in 1990.

According to Al-Naqib, the attackers employed rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in their escape and are being hunted down in a mountainous region between Abyan and the nearby province of Bayda.

No group claimed responsibility for the ambush. However, it had the hallmarks of Yemen-based AQAP.

STC-affiliated forces and alleged AQAP fighters engaged in combat in the region of Shabwa last month, and at least two STC fighters and one AQAP fighter were killed.