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The person of al-Qaida's Yemen branch has threatened some U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk implicit the Israel-Hamas warfare successful the Gaza Strip successful his archetypal video connection since taking implicit the radical past year.
The half-hour video connection by Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, which dispersed online aboriginal Saturday via supporters of al-Qaida successful the Arabian Peninsula, besides included calls for lone-wolf militants to assassinate leaders successful Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab states implicit the war, which has decimated Gaza.
The video of al-Awlaki's code showed images of Trump and Musk, arsenic good arsenic U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It besides included images of logos of Musk's businesses, including the electrical carmaker Tesla.
“There are nary reddish lines aft what happened and is happening to our radical successful Gaza," al-Awlaki said. "Reciprocity is legitimate.”
Though believed to beryllium weakened successful caller years owed to infighting and suspected U.S. drone strikes sidesplitting its leaders, the radical known by the acronym AQAP had been considered the astir unsafe subdivision of al-Qaida inactive operating aft the 2011 sidesplitting by U.S. Navy SEALs of laminitis Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In 2022, a U.S. drone onslaught successful Afghanistan killed bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahri, who besides helped crippled 9/11. The Sept. 11 attacks past began decades of warfare by the U.S. successful Afghanistan and Iraq, and fomented the emergence of the Islamic State group.
Al-Awlaki already has a $6 cardinal U.S. bounty connected his head, arsenic Washington says al-Awlaki “has publically called for attacks against the United States and its allies.” He replaced AQAP person Khalid al-Batarfi, whose decease was announced by the radical successful 2024.
AQAP seizing onto the Israel-Hamas warfare follows the efforts of Yemen's Houthi rebels to bash the same. The Iranian-backed radical has launched rocket attacks connected Israel and targeted commercialized vessels moving done the Red Sea corridor, arsenic good arsenic American warships. The U.S. Navy has described their run against the Houthis arsenic the astir aggravated combat it has faced since World War II.
The Trump medication besides launched its ain aggravated run of strikes connected the Houthis, which lone ended earlier the president's caller travel to the Middle East.
The Houthis' planetary illustration roseate arsenic the radical remains mired successful Yemen's long-stalemated war. Al-Awlaki whitethorn beryllium betting connected the aforesaid for his group, which U.N. experts person estimated has betwixt 3,000 and 4,000 progressive fighters and passive members. The radical raises wealth by robbing banks and wealth speech shops, arsenic good arsenic smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies and ransom operations, according to the U.N.
The Shiite Zaydi Houthis person antecedently denied moving with AQAP, a Sunni extremist group. However, AQAP targeting of the Houthis has dropped successful caller years, portion the militants support attacking Saudi-led conjugation forces who person battled the Houthis.
“As the Houthis summation popularity arsenic leaders of the ‘Arab and Muslim world’s resistance’ against Israel, al-Awlaki seeks to situation their dominance by presenting himself arsenic as acrophobic astir the concern successful Gaza,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen adept of the Basha Report hazard advisory firm.
“For a nationalist information and overseas argumentation assemblage progressively disengaged from Yemen, this video is simply a wide reminder: Yemen inactive matters.”
Published - June 08, 2025 11:22 americium IST
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