WASHINGTON — The USA killed the chief of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, the White Home confirmed on Thursday.
The affirmation got here a few week after The New York Times first reported that the USA believed it had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the Qaeda chief, in January after months of tracing him.
The C.I.A. carried out the airstrike utilizing an unmanned drone, an intelligence official stated.
The White Home assertion had little element concerning the operation, however stated it was carried out on the path of President Trump. The assertion stated Mr. al-Rimi’s dying will degrade the Yemen affiliate and the worldwide Qaeda motion and “brings us nearer to eliminating the threats these teams pose to our nationwide safety.”
Mr. Trump has highlighted his document of ordering the killing of terrorist leaders and different adversaries. In his State of the Union deal with, he highlighted the Military Delta Power raid that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State chief, in addition to the drone strike in Baghdad that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s most necessary common.
Mr. al-Rimi was one of many founders of Yemen’s Qaeda affiliate. Though the affiliate’s energy and skill to conduct strikes within the West has diminished below the strain of strikes by the American army and C.I.A. plane, it’s nonetheless one of many world’s most potent forces.
It stays to be seen how a lot Mr. al-Rimi’s dying will set the group again.
The C.I.A. discovered of Mr. al-Rimi’s location from an informer in Yemen final November, permitting the federal government to start monitoring him with surveillance drones, an official stated.
Mr. al-Rimi, 41, was among the many few remaining Qaeda leaders whose terrorist pedigree traces to the period earlier than the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults.