Yemen strikes al-Qaida
Air attack reportedly kills strategist, 5 other militants
CAIRO, Egypt – One of al-Qaida’s top military strategists in Yemen was reportedly killed Friday along with five other militants in strikes by the Yemeni air force that targeted two vehicles in the country’s northeast mountains, according to officials and news agencies.
The operation was another in a recent string of raids and attacks on al-Qaida strongholds and the organization’s key operatives. The Yemen government, guided by U.S. intelligence in the past, has yet to capture or kill the group’s two leaders, but Friday’s strike was an indication that al-Qaida faces increasing pressure.
Yemen’s Saba news agency reported that Qasim al-Raymi, believed to be a top military commander, was killed in a strike between Saada and Jawf provinces. The report could not be independently confirmed, but if true would be a blow to al-Qaida’s operations. Al-Raymi fought in Afghanistan and escaped from a Yemen prison in 2006, when he became one of the principal architects in joining mostly Yemeni and Saudi radicals to build al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Two other top al-Qaida figures were also reported as killed in the strike: Abu Ayman, the alias for an Egyptian jihadist believed to have spent time in Afghanistan, and Aidh al-Shabwani, the chief of the group’s operations in Marib.