Al-Qaeda confirms death of leader, appoints successor

DUBAI • Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has confirmed the death of its leader Qassim al-Rimi and appointed a successor, weeks after the United States said it had "eliminated" the Islamist militant chief, Site Intelligence group said.

Last Sunday's announcement came in an audio speech delivered by AQAP religious official Hamid bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, said the group which monitors Islamist networks worldwide.

"In his speech, Tamimi spoke at length about Rimi and his jihadi journey, and stated that Khalid bin Umar Batarfi is the new leader of AQAP," it said.

Site said Batarfi has appeared in many AQAP videos over the past several years and appeared to have been Rimi's deputy and group spokesman.

US President Donald Trump announced Rimi's death earlier this month, saying he had been killed in a US "counter-terrorism operation in Yemen".

That announcement came shortly after AQAP claimed responsibility for the Dec 6 mass shooting at a US naval base in Florida, in which a Saudi air force officer killed three American sailors.

Washington considers AQAP to be the worldwide Islamist network's most dangerous branch.

The Sunni extremist group thrived in the chaos of years of civil war between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Shi'ite Houthi rebels.

AQAP has carried out operations against both the Houthis and government forces as well as sporadic attacks abroad, including on the offices of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

But analysts said its abilities on the ground have dwindled, although it still inspires attacks carried out by "lone wolf" radical or former operatives.

After years of lethal drone strikes, it is also running out of leadership material with name recognition or charisma, they said.

"AQAP is at its weakest point in a decade, at least in terms of its identity as a coherent group with a primarily religious ideology," said Dr Elisabeth Kendall, a researcher at the University of Oxford.

"Its dream of establishing an Islamic state in Yemen lies in tatters," she said.

"At its peak in 2015 to 2016, it had taken advantage of the country's descent into war to recruit broadly, fill its coffers... Today, however, the AQAP core struggles to hold even a small patch of territory," she said in a study published by the Washington Institute.

Dr Kendall said Batarfi and other leadership contenders all had "multi-million-dollar bounties on their heads, leaving them with minimal room to manoeuvre, let alone revive AQAP to its heyday".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE