The head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on Monday confirmed the deaths of one of the organization’s leaders, its “media chief”, and another member, last month by an alleged US drone in central Yemen.
The announcement, made Sunday in a five-page obituary on militant websites commonly used by the extremist group, said the group’s media chief, Hamad al-Tamimi, was killed along with another member of al-Qaeda when a suspected US drone strike in the US reached its target. residence, in central Yemen, on Feb. 26.
The CIA declined to comment on the alleged attack, according to the AP.
Al-Qaeda said Hamad al-Tamimi, the terror group’s press chief, was killed along with another member of the al-Qaeda organization when his home near the Yemeni city of Marib was hit by an alleged attack last month. The United States.
Days after this February attack, the US military denied carrying out any strikes in Yemen that week, while the CIA declined to comment.
Three Yemeni tribal elders, on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from extremists present in Marib, told the AP that the The attack targeted a house where al-Tamimi lived, in the Wadi Ubaydah area, not far from the site of another alleged US attack that killed three members of the group in January.
In that January attack, suspected Al Qaeda members appear to have been killed by a Hellfire R9X, also known as a “flying Ginsu” or “knife bomb,” according to footage of the wreckage analyzed by AP and weapons experts.
The two attacks raise questions about the secret US drone campaign in Yemen, which began some 20 years ago.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known by its acronym AQAP, operates in several regions of Yemen, including Marib and other remote provinces.
Years of civil war, in which Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition fought to return Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power, allowed Al Qaeda to maintain a presence, particularly in remote and lawless areas of the country. the country.
The war in Yemen began in 2014, when the Houthis broke out of their stronghold in the north and took the capital, Sana’a, along with much of the north of the country. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015. The conflict sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Source: DN
