In a statement released last week, Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, an influential jihadi ideologue aligned with al Qaeda, criticized Turkey’s cooperation with Russia against the Islamic State. Maqdisi warned jihadists and Islamists in Syria to rethink their decision to work with Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield, which has captured significant territory from the so-called caliphate in northern Syria.
AQAP has confirmed that Nasser bin Ali al Ansi was killed in a US drone strike. Al Ansi was a senior AQAP official, as well as al Qaeda’s deputy general manager. He was considered one of Osama bin Laden’s “special ones.”
Documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound reveal that Nasser bin Ali al Ansi, a senior Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) official, was appointed as one of al Qaeda’s deputy general managers. It is highly likely that he continues to serve in that role underneath Nasir al Wuhayshi, who is both AQAP’s emir and al Qaeda’s global general manager.