BREAKING: US Air Strike Kills al-Qaeda Leader in Yemen

by Warner Todd Huston | June 16, 2015 11:09 am

This morning’s good news is that the head of al-Qaeda in Yemen, Sheikh Abu Basir Nasser al-Wuhaishi, was killed by a US air strike early today. Two other leaders were with him and were also taken out.

An al-Qaeda spokesman confirmed the hit[1], too.

In the video posted online on Tuesday, Khaled Omar Baterfi said the group has assigned its military chief, Qassim al-Raymi, as its new leader. Raymi has already been acting as the group’s top military commander.

“He [Wuhaishi] was very well known in Afghanistan and was very close to Osama bin Laden, known as his secret keeper,” Baterfi said in the video.

Baterfi added that Wuhaishi was formerly imprisoned and had previously survived an assassination attempt.

Add this kill to Monday’s strike that killed Mokhtar Belmokhta[2]r in Libya, and the US has taken out two very dangerous Islamist murderers in as many days.

While the investigation continues, military officials said the initial assessment is that the U.S. airstrike killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who orchestrated the 2013 siege of a gas compound in Algeria that killed 38 civilians, including three Americans.

If confirmed, his death would bring to a close a militant career that put Mr. Belmokhtar at odds with the tactics of Islamic terrorism’s more brutal groups, such as Boko Haram and the new Islamic State. At the height of his active days in the militant movement, he was at the center of a debate among extremists over how freely civilians should be killed.

These air strikes really have been the one and only thing that Obama has done fairly well. That isn’t saying much, but at least Obama’s continued those.

Endnotes:
  1. confirmed the hit: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/yemeni-al-qaeda-leader-killed-air-strike-150616054810531.html
  2. killed Mokhtar Belmokhta: http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-believes-north-african-militant-leader-killed-in-air-strike-1434387816

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/military/breaking-us-air-strike-kills-al-qaeda-leader-in-yemen/