A senior Al-Qaeda figure was killed in a suspected US airstrike in Yemen, security and local sources told AFP on Wednesday.
Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, the top leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington considers one of the most dangerous branches of the global jihad network, was killed in the attack along with his bodyguards, security officials said, requesting. anonymity.
The airstrike, targeting a house in the northern province of Marib that al-Tamimi had recently rented, “appears to be American”, the official said.
A Marib government official, also speaking anonymously, confirmed the death.
Tamimi, a Saudi also known as Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, heads AQAP’s leadership council and is the militant group’s “judge,” the source said.
“The president of the consultative council and the judge, known as Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, was killed by the Yemeni guards”, said Marib official.
AQAP, and rival militants loyal to the Islamic State group, have thrived in the chaos of Yemen’s civil war, which pits the Saudi-backed government against Iran-allied Huthi rebels.
AQAP has carried out operations against Huthi and government forces as well as sporadic attacks abroad.
Its leader has been the target of US drone warfare for more than two decades, although the number of strikes has declined in recent years.
The attack comes a month after three suspected AQAP militants were killed in a US drone strike on a car in Marib province.
Yemen has been in conflict since 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened to support the government after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa.
The conflict has since killed tens of thousands of people and led to what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced.