In the middle of all the trouble in Yemen, there is important news: the leader of al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen has died. On Sunday, the armed group told people this, but they didn’t give many details. Now, everyone wants to know what happened to Khalid Batarfi. We’ll try to learn more about the reason for his death in this article, which will shed light on what happened to this important person during bad times in Yemen.
Khalid Batarfi’s Cause Of Death
According to SITE Intelligence, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said on Sunday that its leader, Khalid Batarfi, had died. SITE says that AQAP did not say what caused the death in a statement.
A leader of the group said, “Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward, stood firm, and waged jihad for his sake.” His predecessor, Qassim al-Raymi, was killed by the US in what former President Donald Trump called a counterterrorism operation in Yemen. Batarfi was then named as AQAP’s leader in early 2020.
A Twitter post is given below:
🔴YEMEN 🇾🇪| The leader of #AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Khalid #Batarfi has died in #Yemen, the terrorist groups' media announced on Sunday 03/10. The cause of death is not disclosed. #AQAP immediately designated his successor : Sa'd bin Atef al-Awlaki. pic.twitter.com/KQrKLlEcP8
— Nanana365 (@nanana365media) March 10, 2024
Batarfi was one of 150 AQAP members who were jailed and then freed when the group took over the port city of Mukalla in Yemen in 2015. The US sees this group as one of the most dangerous parts of the network that Osama bin Laden started.
SITE said that the leader was last seen in a video that came out in February 2023. In it, he told people from Sunni tribes in the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa in Yemen to “resist overtures by the United Arab Emirates and the (separatist) Southern Transitional Council to join their fight against AQAP.”
Who Is Going To Be The New Leader?
The news of Khalid Batarfi’s death came out on the eve of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims. According to the statement, Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki would become the new leader of the group. The US wants to find al-Awlaki and has put out a $6 million reward because he “has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The Yemen branch of al-Qaida has been seen as the most dangerous part of the terror network by the US ever since it tried to bomb an American plane in 2009. According to them, they were behind the deadly attack on the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015.
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