Sanaa, January 15: An air strike Friday on an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) position in north Yemen killed six suspected leaders of the group including its military boss, a senior Yemeni official said.
The military chief, Qassem al-Rimi, was among 23 people who made a daring escape from a state security prison in Sanaa in February 2006 that left the government red-faced.
“Six Al-Qaeda leaders, including the network’s military chief, Qassem al-Rimi, were killed on Friday,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“Ammar al-Waili, Ayedh al-Shabwani and Saleh al-Tais were also killed in the raid” at Al-Ajashir, a desert region in the eastern part of Saada province, he said.
The two other leaders were not named, while two other men fled the scene.
The Friday morning raid targeted two vehicles carrying eight members of Al-Qaeda, “six of whom were killed and two managed to escape,” another official said earlier.
The news came on the day Britain said it would host an international meeting on fighting extremism in Yemen on January 27 in London.
In a Friday sermon, meanwhile, powerful cleric Sheikh Abdulmajeed al-Zendani said it would be “a religious duty” to defend Yemen if it is occupied by a foreign power.
He was responding in part to comments on Wednesday by Carl Levin, chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, who urged Washington to consider targeting Al-Qaeda in Yemen with armed drones, air strikes or covert operations, but not invade the country.
Yemen’s council of clerics, which includes Zendani, had made a similar call for holy defense on Thursday if foreign forces join the war in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.
“If any party insists on aggression, or invades the country, then according to Islam, holy defense becomes obligatory,” said a statement signed by 150 clerics read out at a news conference.
The clerics also stressed “strong rejection of any foreign intervention in Yemeni affairs, whether political or military.”
They also rejected “any security or military agreement or cooperation (between Yemen and) any foreign party if it violates Islamic law” and the “setting up any military bases in Yemen, or in its territorial waters.”
In his Friday sermon, Zendani repeated that “we reject any interference” in Yemeni affairs, adding that the “right of self defence is a duty.”
He urged Arab and Muslim countries to support Yemen “before a catastrophe occurs.”
“The Islamic nation will not stand by with its arms crossed in the face of these Crusades,” he added.
“To defend ourselves and defend our country and our territory, we only fear God… And we are confident in victory,” he told worshippers to cries of God is greater.
On Thursday the Yemeni defence ministry vowed to do “clear” Yemen of Al-Qaeda and warned that “intensive operations” will continue.
—Agencies