{"id":61114,"date":"2020-02-07T12:35:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T04:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61114"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:35:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T04:35:42","slug":"us-pres-trump-confirms-killing-of-aqap-chief-in-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61114","title":{"rendered":"US Pres Trump confirms killing of AQAP chief in Yemen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Qassim al-Rimi, leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump confirmed that the US had killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — days after the jihadist group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a US naval base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US “conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qassim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” Trump said in a White House statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AQAP claimed responsibility on Sunday for a Dec 6 shooting at US Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, in which a Saudi Air Force officer killed three American sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement came with Trump touting US resolve following the killings of Daesh group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October last year and top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani three months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington considers AQAP to be the worldwide jihadist network’s most dangerous branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunni extremist group has thrived in the chaos of years of civil war between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Shiite rebels who control the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Under Rimi, AQAP committed unconscionable violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to conduct and inspire numerous attacks against the United States and our forces,” Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“His death further degrades AQAP and the global al-Qaeda movement, and it brings us closer to eliminating the threats these groups pose to our national security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump did not give any details about the circumstances or the timing of the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it follows the killing of al-Rimi’s predecessor Nasir al-Wuhayshi in June 2015, as part of the US’s long-running drone campaign in Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following year top regional AQAP emir Jalal Belaidi, alias Abu Hamza, was also killed in a drone strike in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belaidi was responsible for multiple provinces in Yemen, the US State Department said after the killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had offered a $5 million reward for information on Belaidi over his alleged involvement in plotting bomb attacks on Western diplomatic officials and facilities in the capital Sanaa in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The United States, our interests, and our allies are safer as a result of his death,” Trump said of the operation on al-Rimi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In AQAP’s Pensacola attack, eight people were wounded, including two responding sheriff’s deputies, before police shot dead the assailant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI formally identified the attacker as Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force who was training in the US. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Qassim al-Rimi, leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump confirmed that the US had killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — days after the jihadist group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a US naval base. The US “conducted a counterterrorism operation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61114"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}