AQAP Leader Naif al Qatani Killed in SA Last Month
Qatani was designated as a member of a terror group this week by the US. State Dept. and the UN along with Qasim al Reimi.
Guardian A senior leader of the al-Qaida cell which attempted to assassinate the British ambassador to Sanaa and blow up a US passenger jet last Christmas has been killed in Saudi Arabia, according to a Yemeni source close to the group.
Nayif Mohammed Saeed al-Qahtani, described as the link man between the Saudi and Yemeni branches of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was killed in a shoot-out last month with Saudi security forces, according to a Yemeni journalist, AbdulElah Shaea.
The time and place of Qahtani’s death are not yet known, but a member of al-Qaida’s leadership in Yemen has confirmed that he was killed and said the group would officially announce the loss in the coming week.
If confirmed, the death of Qahtani, a 24-year-old Saudi, would be the most serious strike against AQAP since President Obama pledged to defeat the group in the wake of the failed airline bombing over Detroit by a Nigerian student trained by al-Qaida in Yemen.
On Tuesday the US state department issued financial sanctions and a travel ban against Qahtani and AQAP military commander Qasim al-Raimi.
Since an offensive against the group began in December Yemeni officials have several times retracted statements on the deaths of senior AQAP members, including Raimi and AQAP leaders Nasser Wahayshi and Saeed Shihri, a former Guantanamo detainee.
Shaea said Qahtani had been instrumental in establishing al-Qaida cells and training camps in Saudi and Yemen and was believed to have plotted last August’s attempted assassination of Saudi counter-terrorism chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who narrowly escaped death after a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside the prince’s home.
“Qahtani was one of AQAP’s most important leaders in Saudi,” said Shaea, who met AQAP’s leadership in Yemen, including Qahtani, soon after the group’s formation in January last year.
“AQAP have lost an important element who will take time to replace. But this also shows how few details the Americans have on AQAP: they sanction one of its leaders after he had been killed.”
Last week AQAP claimed responsibility for April’s attempted assassination of the British ambassador to Sanaa. In February last year, Saudi authorities listed Qahtani among 85 most wanted terrorism suspects for plotting attacks on oil facilities in Saudi and Yemen and for funding attacks against foreigners.
Al Qatani was also implicated in the 2007 attack in Marib that killed several tourists.
