White House confirms death of Al Qaeda leader in Yemen

The death of Nasser Al Wuhayshi, Al Qaeda’s second in command and leader of its powerful Yemeni affiliate, is the most severe blow to the militant network since the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula chief Nasser Al Wuhayshi was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen. AFP Photo

WASHINGTON // The White House yesterday confirmed that Nasser Al Wuhayshi, deputy leader of Al Qaeda, was killed in Yemen, calling it a “major blow” to the organisation.

Wuhayshi, believed to be in his mid-thirties, led the organisation’s Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), which has been behind several plots against western targets. It is considered Al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate.

“The president has been clear that terrorists who threaten the United States will not find safe haven in any corner of the globe,” the White House said.

“While Aqap, Al Qaeda and their affiliates will remain persistent in their efforts to threaten the United States, our partners, and our interests, death removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups.”

However, the White House did not confirm that Wuhayshi was killed in a US drone strike, as Al Qaeda claimed.

Wuhayshi, number two to Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri, is thought to have been killed in a CIA drone strike on June 9.

A Yemeni official said that Wuhayshi was thought to have died in the raid on Al Qaeda-held Mukalla, in south-eastern Yemen.

Another official said last week that a drone had fired four missiles at three Al Qaeda militants – including an unnamed “leading figure” – near Mukalla port, killing them on the spot.

Aqap confirmed Wuhayshi’s death in a video statement dated Monday.

The group’s leader “was killed in a US drone attack that targeted him along with two other mujahideen,” who were also killed, said the statement read by prominent Al Qaeda militant Khaled Omar Batarfi.

Aqap – which was behind the deadly attack on the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January – said it had named military chief Qassem Al Rimi as its new leader.

Al Rimi, 41, was an instructor at a training camp in Afghanistan during the 1990s and his younger brother is in US custody at Guantanamo Bay.

The US government had offered a US$10 million (Dh36.7m) reward for information leading to Wuhayshi’s capture or death, and has set a $5m bounty for Al Rimi.

According to Olivier Guitta, managing director of security and risk consultancy GlobalStrat, Wuhayshi’s death is “another huge blow not only to Aqap” but also to Al Qaeda’s central command.

A former aide to Osama bin Laden, Wuhayshi attended the group’s Al Farouk training camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

The militant is said to have fled Afghanistan in 2002 to Iran, where he was arrested and handed over to Yemen. He was held there without charge until he escaped by tunnelling his way out of prison with 22 others in February 2006.

A year later, Wuhayshi was named head of Aqap.

When bin Laden was killed by US commandos in Pakistan in May 2011, Wuhayshi warned Washington not to fool itself that it spelt Al Qaeda’s demise.

“What is coming is greater and worse, and what is awaiting you is more intense and harmful,” he said.

As well as the Charlie Hebdo attack that left 12 people dead, Aqap was also behind an attempt to blow up a US commercial airliner on Christmas Day 2009.

Washington has repeatedly targeted Aqap militants in drone strikes in Yemen, and has killed several commanders in recent months, including Nasser bin Ali Al Ansi, who appeared in a video claiming responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Aqap has exploited months of fighting between loyalists of Yemen’s exiled government and the country’s Shiite Houthi rebels to consolidate their grip on Hadramawt province and its capital Mukalla – a city of more than 200,000.

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters