A senior official from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was killed in a US airstrike in Yemen last week, the group confirmed Thursday, but the militants vowed the killing would have little impact on its operations.
AQAP said the leader, Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, died along with three other fighters in a drone strike in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province. Nadhari was the spiritual leader of AQAP, The Wall Street Journal reported.
ThoughNadhari was part of the AQAP command’s inner circle, the killing may not have an impact the group’s operations. US strikes have killed off senior leaders from across the al Qaeda franchise from Afghanistan to Yemen over the years, only to see new commanders rise up.
“This is a war and whoever gets martyred in this war, [it] doesn’t affect al Qaeda’s struggle against its enemies,” said an AQAP spokesman reached by an online messaging service. “If one of us is killed, three or five or maybe more [steps up].”
“We’re not like the Nazis or communists who lose wars when their leaders get killed. The battle is still on,” the spokesman said.
When US forces killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in 2011, they declared that the organization was on its knees, but AQAP has made significant gains across Yemen since, despite a robust American counter-terrorism program in the country. A yet more brutal group, Islamic State, has since emerged, erecting a de facto state across parts of Syria and Iraq.
The Yemen-based AQAP is considered by US officials to be al Qaeda’s most deadly franchise, and the most capable of launching global attacks.