Yemen: Al-Qaeda confirms senior leader killed in US airstrike

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The al-Qaeda Islamic terror organization has confirmed that Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, a senior leader at one of the group’s most dangerous bases, was killed in a US airstrike on Yemen last month, AFP reports.

US attacks on the Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen began after the terror attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, intensifying until the Yemeni government declared open war on Al Qaeda in 2010 and continuing to this day.

The US regards Al Qaeda’s Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) branch as one of the group’s most dangerous strongholds: AQAP has waged jihadist terror amid the devastating chaos of Yemen’s eight-year-long civil war. In addition to dealing with AQAP, the Saudi-backed government has been fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in a crushing war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Security and local government sources had told AFP last week that Tamimi was killed during a US drone strike on his home in Marib province, northern Yemen on February 26.

In a statement confirming Tammimi’s death, Al Qaeda said the leader had been a top “media official” who had “previously managed external operations in the group, including those striking American interests,” from the AQAP branch in Yemen, AFP reports.

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