According to CNSNews
The White House has confirmed that the leader of al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based affiliate – often considered the terror franchise’s most dangerous branch – has been killed in “a counter terrorism operation in Yemen.”
The statement did not say exactly when al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Qasim al-Rimi was killed, but the New York Times, citing unnamed security officials, recently reported on an airstrike targeting him in January.
A report on Yemeni website al-Masdar early this week (in Arabic) cited “a source familiar with the movements of al-Qaeda” as saying the drone-fired missile had struck a car in al-Bayda region of central Yemen on January 29. It said Rimi was killed along with a second man in the vehicle, named as Abu al-Bara al-Ibbi. A man with that name is an AQAP cleric and former judge of the terrorist group’s Shari’a court in Taiz. There has been no corroboration of these claims.
Confirmation of Rimi’s death comes just days after AQAP released a video clip claiming responsibility for December’s deadly shooting by a Saudi military officer training at Naval Air Station Pensacola. Rimi featured prominently in that video.
“Our message to the terrorists is clear,” President Trump said in his State of the Union address this week. “If you attack our citizens, you forfeit your life.
Read More on CNSNews