Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Summary: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was announced in 2009 as the merger of two other groups—Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda in Yemen (groups within the larger network of al-Qaeda). Over the next two years, AQAP emerged as one of the most active Islamist groups, blamed for spectacular attempted but unsuccessful terrorist attacks on American targets. The group leader identified himself as Nasser al-Wahishi, a former bodyguard and personal secretary to Osama bin Laden. AQAP operated in southern Yemen, an area long alienated from the government in Sanaa. Among incidents blamed on AQAP were a foiled attempt to bring down a Northwest Airlines plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 and two bombs sent in air cargo from Yemen addressed to Jewish synagogues in Chicago (both bombs were detected before exploding). AQAP's activities made Yemen among the top priorities in the US war on terrorism.

Territory: Headquartered in Yemen; laid claim to all of the Arabian peninsula, including Saudi Arabia.

Religious affiliation or political orientation: Fundamentalist Sunni Muslims aligned with the conservative Wahhabi sect.

Founded: 2009.

Key leaders: Nasser al-Wahishi, one-time personal assistant to Osama bin Laden who was extradited from Iran to Yemen in 2003 (killed in 2015), cofounder; Qasim al-Rimi, identified by US State Department in April 2010 as AQAP's senior military commander (killed in 2020), cofounder; Khalid Batarfi, longtime AQAP fighter and overseer of AQAP's media division who was promoted to overall AQAP leader following al-Rimi's death in 2020.

Alliances: Al Qaeda. AQAP is one of three regional groups claiming affiliation with Al Qaeda; the other two are in Iraq (Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia) and North Africa (Al Qaeda in the Maghreb).

Activities:

Since its emergence, AQAP has become increasingly prominent in the global war on terrorism. Among incidents blamed on AQAP or its immediate predecessor were:

  • September 2006: "Al Qaeda in Yemen," precursor to AQAP, launches its first attacks, nearly simultaneously, on Yemeni oil facilities. Responsibility in the name of Al Qaeda in Yemen is claimed two months later.
  • June-November 2007:Suicide bomber attacks Spanish tourists. Six months later, gunmen kill two Belgians.
  • September 17, 2008: A double car bomb attack on the US embassy in Sanaa kills sixteen people, including six attackers, four civilians, and six Yemeni security personnel. The attackers, dressed in army uniforms, penetrate the first ring of security around the embassy but not the second. A group calling itself "the Organization of Islamic Jihad, belonging to the Al Qaeda network," claims responsibility and threatens further attacks against other embassies unless a designated list of terrorists are imprisoned.
  • January 2009: Video release announces the autumn 2008 merger of Al Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, led by Wahishi, and the adoption of a new name: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
  • February 2009: Wahishi calls on tribal leaders to join him in revolt against Yemen's central government, which he accuses of collaborating with Western powers in the campaign against Somali pirates from the Horn of Africa.
  • August 2009: AQAP suicide bomber injures, and narrowly misses killing, Saudi Arabian security chief, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, with a remote-controlled bomb hidden in his body when he came aboard bin Nayef's private plane. The older brother of the suicide bomber, Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri, is identified as AQAP's leading bomb-maker, responsible for bombs later found in air cargo shipments.
  • December 25, 2009: A young Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, fails to detonate a bomb aboard a Northwest Airlines plane on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. President Obama (January 2, 2010) blames AQAP for the attempted bombing, and news reports say Abdulmutallab had told US officials that Al Qaeda planned the bombing in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The United States and Britain announces (January 3, 2010) they are closing their embassies in Yemen.
  • April 26, 2010: Suicide bomb attack in Sanaa narrowly misses killing Britain's ambassador to Yemen.
  • October 2010: Western intelligence agencies receive warnings from Saudi Arabian intelligence that AQAP had completed planning for attacks involving planes, either in Europe or the United States. On October 29, 2010, two bombs are discovered in cargo planes flown by UPS and FedEx, one in Dubai and one in London. Hidden in computer printers, both devices were traced to Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago. Neither exploded. A week later, AQAP claims responsibility.
  • May 21, 2012: A suicide bomber in Yemen kills more than 120 people and wounds 200 during a parade celebrating Yemen's Unity Day. AQAP claims responsibility for the bombing.
  • December 5, 2013: An AQAP attack on the Yemeni Defense Ministry kills more than fifty people.
  • December 6, 2014: A US Navy SEAL hostage rescue attempt of American journalist Luke Somers fails when AQAP fatally wounds both Somers and South African hostage Pierre Korkie after a firefight erupts.
  • January 7, 2015: The offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper, are attacked by two gunmen following Charlie Hebdo'sdepiction of the Prophet Muhammad in a cartoon. AQAP claims responsibility for the attack that killed eleven people.
  • April 2, 2015: AQAP fighters seize the city of Mukalla, Yemen, stealing more than $120 million. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) later intervene and recapture Mukalla in April 2016.
  • June 12, 2015: Wahishi is killed by a US drone strike in Yemen. Qasim al-Raymi takes overall command of AQAP.
  • 2017: US drone strikes reach a peak at 171 strikes in the year, mostly in AQAP territory.
  • January 29, 2020: A US airstrike kills al-Raymi in Yemen. His death is later confirmed by AQAP. Khalid Batarfi assumes command of AQAP.

Last known status: In 2020, AQAP attacked a senior Yemeni counterterrorism official, Jamal Al Awlaki. From 2015 to 2018, US airstrikes increased in AQAP-occupied territory. By 2018, the group had lost half of its land, though around 4,000 militants remained loyal to the group. In October 2010, Saudi Arabian intelligence warned its Western counterparts that AQAP had completed planning for an attack in Europe or the United States. Three weeks later, on October 29, 2010, two bombs were discovered in cargo planes flown by the UPS and FedEx cargo services. Both packages were traced to Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago. Neither bomb exploded, but the discovery touched off a global terrorist alert and brought air cargo to the forefront as the latest front in the war on terrorism.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was formed in early 2009 as a merger of Al Qaeda in Yemen and Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. It is one of several regional affiliates of Osama bin Laden's organization, including active branches in Iraq (Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia) and North Africa (Al Qaeda in Maghreb).

AQAP has operated in the context of an impoverished country long plagued with conflict, including a civil war to reunite its southern half under the government of North Yemen and a tribal rebellion. The government exercises limited influence over much of the country, where tribal warlords dominate—an area that has provided AQAP a refuge from which to operate, according to Western analysts.

AQAP's leadership has come from jihadists who were either released or escaped from prisons—including Guantanamo—and veterans of the war in Iraq. After publicizing the merger of Yemeni and Saudi branches of Al Qaeda, the organization announced, in a January 23, 2009, video, the new leaders of the Saudi cell as Said Ali al-Shihri, a Guantanamo Bay prisoner released in November 2007, and Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi, identified as "Guantanamo Detainee 333."

Another name linked to AQAP in 2010 was cleric Anwar Awlaki, an American-born son of a Yemeni father who became famous for recorded lectures explaining and advocating jihad. Awlaki was cited as having communicated with the US Army major accused of killing thirteen people at Fort Hood, Texas, and with the Nigerian accused of trying to bomb the Northwest Airlines plane in December 2009. After his release from prison in Yemen, Awlaki moved to a remote area of Yemen where he was reportedly working with AQAP and helping plan operations aimed at US targets. He was later killed by a US drone strike in 2011.

AQAP's predecessor, Al Qaeda in Yemen, emerged in February 2006 with the escape of several accused terrorists, including Wahishi, from a maximum security prison in Sanaa. This mass escape was followed by a string of attacks, starting with a coordinated attack on widely separated oil facilities on September 15, 2006. Responsibility was claimed in the name of AQY two months later. In the claim, the Yemeni attacks were described as retaliation for the death in June 2006 of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia (Iraq). A year later, in November 2007, six suspects were tried and convicted in absentia, including Nasser al-Wahishi, described as the leader of what was then regarded as a cell of Al Qaeda.

Partly because it lacks a strong central government and partly because of its location—it is just across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, another redoubt of Islamist guerrillas—Yemen has long been thought to be a new gathering place for former Al Qaeda fighters displaced from Afghanistan. In March 2008, in a monthly online magazine issued by AQY, "Echo of Epics," a Saudi member of Al Qaeda urged Al Qaeda members to come to Yemen partly because it is near Saudi Arabia, which was described as the main eventual focus of Al Qaeda. In this edition of "Echo of Epics," AQY began calling itself "Al Qaeda in the Southern Arabian Peninsula."

In the second half of 2007 and through 2008, several terrorist attacks in Yemen were blamed on AQY. However, the country was simultaneously torn by a civil war in the south, carried on by a primarily tribal-based separatist movement, and by another tribal separatist movement in the northwestern part of the country, where the central government was thought to control only about 35 percent of the territory.

US airstrikes and the intervention of a Saudi-led military coalition began to severely weaken the leadership and capabilities of AQAP beginning in the 2010s. Further intervention from the UAE and Yemeni forces throughout the remainder of the 2010s further weakened AQAP. However, a lessening UAE presence in Yemen beginning in 2019 created opportunities for AQAP to reclaim lost ground. On July 31, 2022, the leader of the main branch of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed by a US drone strike in Afghanistan.

Bibliography

"Al-Qaida Claims Responsibility for Cargo Bombs." NBC News, 5 Nov. 2010, www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40031838. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.

Bolland, Thomas, and Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen. “‘No Boots on the Ground:’ The Effectiveness of US Drones against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” Defense & Security Analysis, pp. 127–143. doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2018.1478184.

Mapping Militant Organizations. “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” Stanford University, Feb. 2020, cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/al-qaeda-arabian-peninsula. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.

Lubold, Gordon. "U.S. Targets Yemen Al Qaeda Leader in Drone Strike." The Wall Street Journal, 31 Jan. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-targets-yemen-al-qaeda-leader-in-drone-strike-11580511550. Accessed 16 Sept. 2022.