According to the SITE Intelligence Group, Al-Qaeda confirmed that Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, a prominent Saudi official in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), died in a suspected US air raid in Yemen last month. Al-Tamimi was killed on February 26 in a drone strike that targeted his residence in Yemen’s Marib province. AQAP’s counsel and judge, Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, also known as Al-Tamimi, was killed in the attack, which was believed to be American, according to Yemeni security authorities who spoke with AFP on anonymity. The American non-profit organization that monitors Islamic extremist websites reported that a Yemeni bodyguard was also killed.
In February 2020, another AQAP leader, Qassim al-Raymi, was killed in a US-led counter-terrorism operation in Yemen. AQAP was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, which views it as one of the most dangerous branches of the al-Qaeda network that Osama bin Laden established.
Last September, al-Qaeda carried out a terrorist attack in the southern province of Abyan in which 20 Yemeni security forces were reportedly killed. The terrorists used rockets, light and medium weapons, and military vehicles in their ambush and were all killed. Yemen-based AQAP has taken advantage of Yemen’s chaos, tribal sympathies, and large, empty areas of southern Yemen to strengthen its impact despite the intensive campaigns conducted by the U.S. military, coalition forces, and the Houthis over the past decade.
In August of last year, President Joe Biden confirmed the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan, by American forces using a precision drone strike. American intelligence found him last year, and the strike resulted in no civilian casualties. Despite being the “number two” during the 9/11 terrorist attack, Biden claimed that Zawahiri was the “mastermind” behind attacks on Americans “for decades.” Last year, the Biden administration completed the removal of US troops from Afghanistan.