The United States announced last night that they had killed the leader of a subdivision of the Al Qaeda terrorist group. This is Qasim al-Raymi, who since June 2015 has been the head of Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the local and dominant division of the terror network in Yemen.
“Commissioned by President Donald Trump, the United States conducted an anti-terror operation in Yemen that eliminated Qasim al-Raymi, founder and leader of Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” the White House announced in a notice tonight.
Exactly how and where the attack was carried out is not yet clear. The terrorist group has not yet responded to the news.
Al-Raymi is a co-founder of AQAP and has been the head of that very influential department of Al Qaeda since 2015. He was also considered a possible successor to Ayman al-Zawahri, the current leader of Al Qaeda.
AQAP is mainly active in Yemen but also in Saudi Arabia and claimed the deadly attack of the Pensacola army base in Florida in the US state of Florida a few days ago. A Saudi Air Force pilot in training then shot three people. Eight others were injured before the shooter was killed.
According to the FBI, it was a 21-year-old soldier from the Saudi Air Force who was for training at the army base.
The Yemeni division of Al Qaeda is particularly strong in the eastern province of Hadhramawt, carrying out attacks against both the pro-Saudi coalition in Yemen and the Shiite Houthis. From Yemen, AQAP also tries to carry out terrorist attacks in the West.