Trump appears to confirm killing of al Qaeda leader in Yemen via retweet of Yahoo News reporter
In a series of retweets, President Donald Trump seemingly confirmed reports on Saturday that the U.S. had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the leader of an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
"This was not a DOD operation," a Pentagon official said Saturday. Spokespeople for the CIA and National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Some analysts had considered Rimi to be a possible successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda's overall umbrella operation. In 2006, Rimi and several other AQAP members escaped from a prison in Yemen -- one of several failed attempts to take him off the battlefield.
"If it is true," said Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen, who noted that the U.S. had yet to confirm Rimi's death,"it means that the end of AQAP as an international terrorist threat is in sight. The group is in disarray and [Rimi] was the last leader with strong ties to the group's founding in 2009." But senior U.S. officials have warned that ISIS is making a comeback in Iraq and Syria, blaming last year's incursion by Turkey for breathing new life into a group that President Trump has claimed has been 100 percent eliminated.
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