Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi, a former Gitmo detainee, has risen within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s ranks to commander. He is featured in a tape, along with other AQAP leaders, that celebrates the Fort Hood shooting and the failed Christmas Day 2009 attack, and also threatens further attacks on America.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released a videotape showing Umar al Farouk Abdulmutallab, the failed Christmas Day airline bomber; Uthman al Ghamdi, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay; and Fahd al Quso, an operative in the USS Cole bombing. AQAP blamed the US for conducting airstrikes in Yemen.
The deputy governor of Marib province was among several people killed during a negotiating session with al Qaeda.
Anwar al Awlaki, the radical US-born cleric for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, urged further attacks against US citizens against the US on a videotape released on the Internet. “Those who might be killed in a plane are merely a drop of water in a sea,” he said.
Qasim al Raymi, the military commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said the US has given the terror group “1,000 new excuses and reasons to attack you” after local al Qaeda leader Jamil Nasser Abdullah al Ambari was killed. Ambari was killed in an airstrike in Abyan province on March 15.
Nayif Mohammed Saeed al Qahtani is reported to have been killed in a shootout in Saudi Arabia sometime in April. The report is unconfirmed. Qahtani is a top operational commander for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Yemeni government erroneously reported that one of the two al Qaeda leaders, Qasim al Raymi, was killed in January. Al Raymi is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s military chief. His brother is currently held at Guantanamo.
American-born al Qaeda cleric Anwar al Awlaki said he is “proud” to have taught Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan and failed Christmas Day airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Awlaki also accused the US of establishing Awakenings, and of killing tribal members and blaming the attacks on al Qaeda.
Anwar al Awlaki said he was “proud” to have taught Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan and failed Christmas Day airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Saudi Arabia announced arrests of 113 alleged al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists whom it claims were planning attacks against oil facilities. Over the past six years, al Qaeda and other jihadi groups have come to see attacks against oil targets as one of the keys to their economic strategy.
The US Office of Naval Intelligence warned of a USS Cole-type attack off the coast of Yemen by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. “Information suggests that al Qaeda remains interested in maritime attacks in the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen,” the ONI stated.
The Yemeni military claims two top al Qaeda military leaders were killed in an airstrike yesterday. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said a top financier and military commander was killed earlier this year.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said that Yemeni security forces killed financier and military commander Ibrahim Saleh Mujahid al Khalifa, who was also known as Abi Jandal al-Qisaimy. Khalifa was a Saudi national who also helped smuggle fighters and cash across the border. He was killed during a clash along the Yemeni-Saudi border.
Said Ali al Shihri, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s second in command, released a videotape where he criticized the Yemeni regime and addressed Osama bin Laden. “We will never let you down until we taste victory,” Shihri said to bin Laden. “The wave of jihad is coming and the Yemeni wave will always be […]
Qasim al Raymi, the military commander of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, threatened to conduct attacks in the heart of the US. “Today, you have attacked us in the middle of our household, so wait for what will befall you in the middle of yours,” he wrote in an article published in the group’s […]
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said it has prepared “dozens” of underwear bombs for use in attacks worldwide. “We have dozens of sophisticated explosive devices which are similar to that used by the Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit,” the terror group claimed in an article in […]
Yemeni air force fighters targeted the home of al Qaeda’s leader in Marib province multiple times. No casualties have been reported.
The reports of the capture of Said Ali al Shihri were incorrect. Yemeni sources are now saying a different man, Yusuf al Shihri, was captured, even though he was reported killed during a clash last fall.
The Interior Ministry reported that Said Ali al Shihri and another al Qaeda operative were captured today after a car crash in Shabwa province. The report was not confirmed by US officials.
The government confirmed that Abu Hurayrah Qasim al Raymi and five other al Qaeda leaders, including an Egyptian, were killed in the Jan. 15 airstrike.
A former Gitmo detainee, Hani Abdo Shaalan, was killed in Yemen as he was reportedly preparing to participate in an attack on the British embassy and other Western targets. At Gitmo, Shaalan admitted that he worked for the Taliban yet downplayed his role, but evidence indicates he was recruited and trained by the Taliban.
A DC district court has ruled that detainee Hedi Hammamy was properly held at Guantanamo. Hammamy is alleged to have fought at Tora Bora, and worked for a network of al Qaeda cells in Europe that plotted against the 1998 World Cup tournament in France.