Al-Qaeda in Yemen
| Al-Qaeda in Yemen | |
|---|---|
 Flag used by the group | |
| Founder | Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (POW) |
| Leaders | Abu Ali al-Harithi † (1998 – 2002) Muhammad al-Ahdal † (2002 – 2003) |
| Dates of operation | 1998 – 2003 and 2006 – 2009 |
| Active regions |  Yemen |
| Ideology | Sunni Islamism Salafi Jihadism |
| Part of |  al-Qaeda |
| Allies | al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia |
| Opponents | Yemen United States |
| Battles and wars | War on Terror Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen |
Al-Qaeda in Yemen (AQY), also known as al-Qaeda in the Lands of Yemen (AQLY) and al-Qaeda in the Southern Arabian Peninsula (AQSAP) in its later iteration, was a Sunni Islamist militant organization which existed between 1998 and 2003, and 2006 and 2009.
AQY was established in late 1998 as a cell led by Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi member of al-Qaeda central who had convinced Osama bin Laden to fund an attack on a United States military target in Yemen. Bin Laden obliged, appointing al-Nashiri as al-Qaeda's head of operations in the Persian Gulf and leaving him to plan and execute the attack.[1] Al-Nashiri's plans would come to fruition when AQY bombed the USS Cole while it was docked at the Port of Aden in October 2000. Though it was al-Qaeda's largest success at that point, the bombing, which was followed by the September 11 attacks the next year, would lead to an intense counterterrorism campaign by the Yemeni and US governments which would cripple AQY's operational capacity.[2] Al-Nashiri was arrested by Yemeni authorities in November 2002, while a US drone strike killed AQY leader Abu Ali al-Haritha in the same month. After the arrest of replacement leader Muhammad al-Ahdal in 2003, AQY was regarded as largely defeated.[3][2]
In February 2006, a prison break in Sanaa lead to the escape of 23 members of al-Qaeda. The escapees, most notably Nasir al-Wuhayshi and Qasim al-Raymi, would rebuild al-Qaeda's presence in Yemen under the name of AQLY. Though the groups first attack, a pair of coordinated suicide car bombings on two Yemeni oil facilities in September 2006, would end up failing, AQLY would prove to be more resilient and appealable to locals than its predecessor group.[3][1] AQLY was officially announced as al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen in the summer of 2007, with Wuhayshi being named as the groups leader. From there, AQLY launched several high-profile attacks in Yemen against local and foreign targets, most notably a car bombing against Spanish tourists in Marib in 2007 and an attack on the US embassy in Sanaa in 2008. In 2009, AQLY merged with al-Qaeda's struggling branch in Saudi Arabia to form al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Koehler-Derrick, Gabriel (2011-10-03). "A False Foundation? AQAP, Tribes and Ungoverned Spaces in Yemen" (PDF). CTC Westpoint. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-04. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ a b "Yemen's al-Qaeda: Expanding the Base". International Crisis Group. 2017-02-17. Archived from the original on 2024-03-14. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ a b Johnsen, Gregory (2009-07-14). "Waning Vigilance: Al-Qaeda's Resurgence in Yemen". The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved 2024-12-12.