- AQAP leader Batarfi declared dead
- Successor Saad al-Awlaki named
- Al-Qaeda continues operations
Khalid Batarfi has been declared dead by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has also designated a successor, according to an intelligence service that monitors armed group networks across the globe.
Late on Sunday, SITE Intelligence Group reported that an AQAP statement failed to explain Batarfi’s demise. It was stated that Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki would assume leadership.
“God took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm, immigrated, garrisoned, and waged jihad,” an AQAP veteran was quoted as saying by SITE in a video lasting nearly 15 minutes regarding Batarfi.
Batarfi was depicted in the recording draped in a white funeral shroud and bearing the black-and-white al-Qaeda flag.
Batarfi, who was born in Saudi Arabia and was estimated to be in his forties at the time, assumed the leadership position of AQAP in early 2020, subsequent to the demise of his predecessor, Qassim al-Rimi, at the hands of an American drone strike in Yemen, allegedly conducted as a counterterrorism effort by then-President Donald Trump.
Batarfi was among the 150 AQAP members who were released from prison in 2015 when the organization captured the coastal city of Mukalla in Yemen, where he was detained.
SITE reports that al-Awlaki’s most recent appearance was in February 2023, in a video where he urged Sunni tribesmen in the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, Yemen, to “resist [separatist] Southern Transitional Council and United Arab Emirates overtures to join their fight against AQAP.”
According to the United States, al-Awlaki “has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies” and is worth a $6 million reward.
Houthi militants, allied with forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized a large portion of Yemen in late 2014, including the capital, Sanaa, before the Yemen War broke out. A Saudi-UAE-led coalition intervened against the insurgents in March 2015 in an effort to reinstate the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, thereby instigating an escalation in hostilities.
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As with other armed organizations and combatants, AQAP, which is headquartered in Yemen, has expanded its presence during the protracted conflict between pro-government forces and the Houthis by capitalizing on the disorder.
Despite the assertions of analysts that the organization has experienced a decline in recent years, the United States has consistently regarded AQAP as the most dangerous offshoot of al-Qaeda subsequent to the demise of its originator, Osama bin Laden.
“Al-Qaeda’s most effective terrorist organization in Yemen, AQAP, continues to operate throughout the region and beyond, despite its decline,” stated a recent United Nations report on the organization.
