ALBAWABA - The chief of Yemen's Al-Qaeda branch, Khalid Al-Batarfi, was killed, the militant group declared late Sunday, without providing any other details on when and how he was killed.
Al-Qaeda released a video showing Al-Batarfi wrapped in a funeral shroud of the organization's black-and-white flag. It offered no details on the cause of his death.
"Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm, immigrated, garrisoned, and waged jihad for His sake," Al-Qaeda stated in the video, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
The US government had placed a $5 million premium on Khalid Al-Batarfi's head for directing the group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which was long regarded as the most dangerous branch of the organization still in operation following the death of founder Osama bin Laden.
The organization announced that Saad bin Atef Al-Awlaki will take over as its head following the killing of Al-Batarfi. The US has a $6 million bounty on Al-Awlaki, claiming he "has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies".
In February 2020, Al-Batarfi took over as head of the branch, also known as AQAP. He replaced Qassim Al-Rimi, who was killed in a US drone attack authorized by then-President Donald Trump.
Al-Rimi claimed responsibility for a 2019 attack on the US Naval Air Station Pensacola, in which a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.
In 2015, he was released following an AQAP attack that saw the militants take Mukalla, the capital of Yemen's largest province, Hadramawt, during the chaos that followed Yemen's Houthi rebels taking the capital, Sanaa, and as a Saudi-led coalition launched a war against the Houthis, AP reported.
Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Al-Batarfi went to Afghanistan in 1999 and fought alongside the Taliban during the US-led invasion. He joined AQAP in 2010 and commanded militants in taking over Yemen's Abyan province, according to the United States.
