Seventy members of the Islamic State’s Yemen “province,” including three members of its sharia committee, its military emir, and its chief of general security, announced their “defection” from the group’s “governor.”
Ibrahim Abu Salih (also known as Abu al Hassan al Hashimi) was featured in a video posted online by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) earlier this month. He has been a jihadist for more than 35 years and, in the early 1990s, al Qaeda’s leaders ordered him to build an arm for their organization in Yemen. Abu Salih later cofounded AQAP. He is currently the group’s security official, as well as a member of its shura council.
A US military spokesman touted the strikes that killed the three Islamic State leaders as “an example of how we’re able to decimate networks.”
Al Qaeda’s official branch in Yemen took control of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, and Jaar. The two towns were previously under al Qaeda control between May 2011 and the summer of 2012.
Al Qaeda has released a new speech by Ayman al Zawahiri, who asks Allah to reward the “brothers in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” (AQAP) for helping “to complete” the January 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris.
UN representative Jan Kubis reportedly met with Muthanna Harith al Dari yesterday. The UN National Security Council’s Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee has accused Dari of funding al Qaeda in Iraq.
The US State and Treasury Departments announced 35 designations today. The designations target the Islamic State’s foreign fighters, leaders, “provinces” and other related entities. Several jihadists from the West were included among the designees.
AQAP’s latest edition of Inspire magazine includes an article by Ibrahim Ibn Hassan al Asiri, who describes al Qaeda’s plan to attack Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Al Qaeda’s branches and allies have held or continue to control ground in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya, contrary to the narrative that only the Islamic State seeks to take territory.
The US continues to target al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s network in the eastern city of Mukallah. The city fell to AQAP in April.
Qasim al Raymi, the new head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reaffirms his allegiance to Ayman al Zawahiri in a newly-released audio message. It is al Raymi’s first message as AQAP’s emir.
Qasim al Raymi was appointed the new top leader of AQAP following the death of his predecessor earlier this month. His younger brother has been held at Guantanamo for more than 13 years. Files written by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) provide details concerning Qasim al Raymi’s career, including his time in pre-9/11 Afghanistan.
AQAP executed two men on a beach in Mukallah after accusing them of serving as spies for the US and Saudi Arabia. According to jihadists on social media, the two men helped locate AQAP leaders killed in drone strikes this year. The Long War Journal cannot independently verify these claims.
AQAP has confirmed that its emir, Nasir al Wuhayshi, was killed in a US drone strike earlier this month. The group’s new leader is Qasim al Raymi, who previously served as AQAP’s military commander.
Reports of the death of Nasir al Wuhayshi, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s emir and al Qaeda’s general manager, are unconfirmed. The US launched a drone strike in Hadramout province last week.
A US drone strike reportedly killed Ma’moun Abdulhamid Hatem, an AQAP and Ansar al Sharia official who supported the Islamic State, yesterday in Yemen. His purported death has not been confirmed by the group.
The leader of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent says that attacks by al Qaeda’s branches against supposed “blasphemers” were ordered by al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri. He claims that several murders in Bangladesh and Pakistan were part of this campaign, which also includes the Charlie Hebdo massacre earlier this year.
Ali Abu Muhammad al Dagestani led the Islamic Caucasus Emirate during defections to the Islamic State. He openly stated his allegiance to Al Qaeda and the global jihadist group also provided him support.
Al Qaeda announced the death of sharia official Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish, who was killed in a drone strikein eastern Yemen. Rubaish is a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who also served as an operational planner for the jihadist group.
Al Qaeda franchise in Yemen exploits chaos to rebuild, officials say
Yemen tribal forces say will retake Mukalla from al Qaeda
The State Department has added Aliaskhab Kebekov (also known as Ali Abu Muhammad al Dagestani), who heads the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists. State notes that Kebekov has proclaimed his organization’s “structural subordination” to al Qaeda.
US military advisors based at Al Anad Air Base have been withdrawn after AQAP briefly took control of a nearby city. The advisors were at the forefront in battling al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen.
Yemen's Army pushes al Qaeda militants out of southern city
Britain extradites London man to US over al Qaeda terror charges
On Feb. 17, the media wing of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al Malahem Media Foundation, released the latest installment of its video series documenting the group’s attacks, called “From The Battlefield.” This most recent episode features footage of a double suicide attack on the Yemeni military’s First Military Command base in Hadramout […]
Clashes between Shi’ite Houthis and Sunnis in Yemen leave 26 dead
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took control of the base and captured several soldiers in Shabwa province as the Shia Houthis tighten their grip on the capital and the US and Britain shutter their embassies.
In a recently released audio message, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ideologue Ibrahim al-Rubaysh addresses demonstrations against the Charlie Hebdo attack and calls for more attacks against the West.
Houthi rebels in Yemen say they intend to form a new government