Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula announces death of leader, says SITE Group

CAIRO: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) announced the death of its leader, Khalid Batarfi, on Sunday, the SITE Intelligence group said.

In a statement, AQAP did not give a cause of death, according to SITE. It named Sa’d bin ‘Atef al-Awlaki as his successor, the monitoring group added.

“Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm ... and waged jihad for his sake,” SITE quoted a group leader as saying.

Batarfi was named as AQAP’s leader in early 2020 after his predecessor, Qassim al-Raymi, was killed by the United States in what former president Donald Trump said was a counterterrorism operation in Yemen.

Batarfi was one of 150 jailed AQAP members who were freed when the group, regarded by the United States as one of the deadliest branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, captured the Yemeni port city of Mukalla in 2015, where he was being held.

SITE said the new leader, al-Awlaki, last appeared in a video released in February 2023, in which he urged Sunni tribesmen in the Yemeni provinces of Abyan and Shabwa to “resist overtures by the United Arab Emirates and the (separatist) Southern Transitional Council to join their fight against AQAP”.