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Al-Qaeda’s Yemen leader appears in video despite UN report of arrest
DUBAI, Feb 11, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The leader of Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen
appears to be still at large despite a United Nations report which claimed he
had been under arrest for months, the SITE Intelligence Group and two local
tribal leaders said Thursday after he was seen in a video released by the
jihadist group.
Khalid Batarfi, who has been the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP) for about a year, talks about the storming of the US
Congress last month in the video, which came out Wednesday.
The video, which opens with footage of the January 6 assault by Donald
Trump supporters, belies reports that Batarfi was under arrest, said SITE,
which monitors extremist organisations.
In the 20-minute video titled “America and the Painful Seizure”, Batarfi
says “storming the Congress is only the tip of the iceberg of what will come
to them, God willing”.
A report filed to the UN Security Council last week claimed Batarfi was
arrested and his deputy, Saad Atef al-Awlaqi, killed during an “operation in
Ghayda City, Al-Mahrah governorate, in October”.
Two local tribal leaders in the Al-Bayda governorate in central Yemen,
where AQAP is active, told AFP there was a high probability the person
arrested was not Batarfi but another member of the jihadist group.
“Most probably, he wasn’t arrested, and the one who was arrested was
another senior leader in the group,” one of the tribal leaders said.
The UN report, which summarised global potential jihadist threats, did not
disclose his whereabouts or reveal any further details of the October
operation.
– ‘Global terrorist’ –
AQAP revealed it had appointed Batarfi, believed to be in his early 40s,
as its leader in February 2020 following the death of his predecessor Qassim
al-Rimi in a US air strike in Yemen.
Batarfi, who was designated a global terrorist by the US State Department
in 2018, has appeared in numerous AQAP videos over recent years, according to
SITE, and appeared to have been Rimi’s deputy and group spokesman.
Washington considers AQAP to be the worldwide jihadist network’s most
dangerous branch, and has waged a long-running drone war against the leaders
of the group.
AQAP claimed responsibility for the 2019 mass shooting at a US naval base
in Florida, in which a Saudi air force officer killed three American sailors.
The Sunni extremist group thrived in the chaos of years of civil war
between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
AQAP has carried out operations against both the Huthis and government
forces as well as sporadic attacks abroad, including on the offices of the
French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo in 2015.
Analysts say its abilities on the ground have dwindled, although it still
inspires attacks carried out by “lone wolf” jihadists or former operatives.
Yemen has been wracked by conflict since 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition
intervened after the Huthis seized control of the capital Sanaa.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 0745 hrs