The United States carried out an airstrike against one of al Qaeda’s most powerful terrorists, and officials expressed confidence that he is dead.
Officials said that a January airstrike might have killed 41-year-old Qassim al Rimi, the leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, according to the New York Times. The terrorist leader was reportedly tracked for months using intelligence and aerial surveillance.
Authorities are wary to announce that Rimi was killed, as other al Qaeda and Islamic State leaders have been targeted with airstrikes in the past and survived. The State Department have a $10 million bounty on Rimi’s head.
Rimi was involved in a number of terrorist plots throughout the years, including a 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. He was also connected to the 2009 plot by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a U.S. airliner using explosive-lined underwear.
According to an official with knowledge of the operation, the CIA learned of Rimi’s location in November from an informant in Yemen, which allowed him to be tracked using drones.
The CIA declined to comment on the situation when contacted by the Washington Examiner.
The apparent airstrike comes the same month as a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. The 62-year-old general was the leader of the Quds Force, an elite special operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops during the Iraq War.
In October, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was killed during a top-secret operation in Idlib province of northwest Syria, where he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and his three children.
