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LA
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula names new emir; U.S. has $6 million bounty on his head
Excerpt:
In a newly released video, Ibrahim al-Qosi, a veteran official within al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), announced the sudden death of AQAP’s emir, Khalid al-Batarfi.
At the same time, al-Qosi announced that Sa’ad bin Atef al-Awlaki, a member of AQAP’s top shura council, was selected to succeed Batarfi as the group’s leader. To note, the United States currently has a $6 million bounty on Al-Awlaki’s head.
The relatively short video released by AQAP did not specify how Batarfi met his demise. Instead, al-Qosi simply stated that Batarfi died and did not elaborate further. Al-Qosi celebrated Batarfi’s long history in jihad, which included fighting alongside al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
.....In yesterday’s video, al-Qosi then explained that Sa’ad bin Atef Al-Awlaki was chosen as the successor of Batarfi to take over as the overall emir of AQAP. Al-Awlaki, who only recently became more camera-friendly, had long served as a deputy to Batarfi, one of the top officials on AQAP’s main shura council, and the group’s emir for Yemen’s Shabwa Governorate.
As his name suggests, Al-Awlaki is a member of the influential Awlaki tribe, which plays a prominent role within al Qaeda. Another infamous Awlaki is Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born jihadi preacher who held an influential role within AQAP as well a beloved preacher for al Qaeda within jihadi circles and an critical recruiter of westerners. Anwar helped found AQAP’s Inspire Magazine, which encouraged Western Muslims to wage jihad both at home as well as within Muslim countries.
Anwar also served as a key facilitator for AQAP’s external operations branch. The U.S. killed Anwar in a drone strike in Al Jawf province in Sept. 2011. His son, Abdul Rahman, who said he hoped “to attain martyrdom as my father attained it” and was described by AQAP as a “lion’s cub,” was killed in a U.S. strike that targeted AQAP’s media emir in Shabwa Governorate in Dec. 2011.
Al-Adl’s son, Khaled Mohammed Salahaldin Zidane, is currently deployed to Yemen as his personal representative, where he “plays a critical role in recruitment, media and managing AQAP internal strife,” according to the UN.
Some of this aforementioned internal strife, which reportedly included disagreements between Batarfi and Al-Awlaki, likely stems from AQAP’s current strategy to not target the Houthis, which in prior years were a major enemy of the al Qaeda branch.
Indeed, the most recent UN report also noted reported instances of the Houthis training AQAP in the use of drones, while the Houthis have also released AQAP members it had previously arrested. AQAP has also not claimed any attacks on the Houthis in several years.
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