Over the years, U.S. officials have said the Yemen branch was especially dangerous because of its ability to produce sophisticated bombs and its ambition to launch attacks against targets in the United States and Europe. Though Rimi had been focused more internally on Yemen lately, AQAP’s franchise was external operations and targeting the United States, the official noted. Local news reports in Yemen said that a senior al-Qaeda leader had been killed in a U.S. drone strike in January in the Wadi Ubaidah district, in central Yemen, but they didn’t identify him. The following month, Trump confirmed that the United States had killed a notorious AQAP bombmaker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, two years earlier. ADThe strike targeting the Yemen al-Qaeda chief is the second high-profile operation there in recent weeks.

Source: Washington Post February 01, 2020 18:56 UTC