US Claims Successfully Killed Al Qaeda Leader Qassim Al-Rimi

JAKARTA - A leader of Al Qaeda in the Yemen and Saudi Arabia (AQAP) area, Qassim al-Rimi and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were reportedly killed by an air strike from the United States (US). The US government claims the attack has been carried out since last month but it only decided to announce it on Thursday, February 6.

"Under al-Rimi, there has been much senseless violence perpetrated by Al Qaeda against civilians in Yemen and it seeks to carry out and inspire numerous attacks on the United States and our troops," Trump said in a statement. .

"His death further degrades the activities of AQAP and other global movements, and it brings us closer to eliminating the threat these groups pose to our national security," Trump added.

The United States considers AQAP to be one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the al Qaeda network founded by Osama bin Laden.

At the direction of President Trump, the US conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qasim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula and a deputy to al-Qa'ida leader Ayman al -Zawahiri. https://t.co/ayOmTpzH04

- The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 6, 2020

Reports from Yemen said that Al-Rami was killed in a drone attack on Marib. However a Yemeni government official said that there was a drone strike on Marib but it was not Al-Rami who was killed.

Rumors of Al-Rami's death in a US military air strike began circulating in late January. In response, AQAP released an audio message with Al-Rami's voice on February 2, in which it said AQAP was behind the deadly shooting at a US naval base in Pensacola, Florida. However, it was later discovered that the voice recording was an old recording.

In 2019, US forces managed to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria. Trump has often cited the decline in the scale of ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria as part of his administration's move.

AQAP was formed in 2009 from the two regional branches of Al Qaeda in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, with the aim of overthrowing the US-backed government and eliminating all Western influence in the region. AQAP is claimed to be one of the causes of political instability in Yemen that has plagued the country for years.

Al-Rimi took over AQAP in 2015 after its former leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was killed in a US air strike in 2015. Al Qaeda immediately appointed al-Rimi as his successor.

Al-Rimi's deputy, al-Zawahiri, is on the US's most-wanted list of terrorists with a reward of up to $ 25 million for the person who found him. Al-Zawahiri has been indicted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The bombing killed 224 people, including 12 US citizens, according to the FBI. The suicide bombers drove a pickup truck to the gates of both embassies and detonated TNT in the attack.