OSINT SUMMARY
4th February 2016, two suspected U.S. drone strikes have killed 12 Islamist militants overnight in south Yemen residents have said on Thursday.
The 12 militants were killed alongside a top Al Qaeda commander who may have been the new leader of Islamic State in Yemeni.
One drone strike killed six militants in a car travelling in al Rawda city in Shabwa province, a remote desert area where al Qaeda militants are believed to be operating.
This province has been targeted by drone strikes this year as it is believed to harbor al Qaeda militants.
The second drone strike hit militants in their car in the coastal Abyan province killing all the six occupants including a powerful field commander identified as Jalal Baleedi suspected to be leading al Qaeda attacks in Yemeni.
Reports points out that due to intensified military intervention in the past nine months by Gulf Arab state, Baleedi is believed to have recently defected from al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and becoming the emir of Islamic State’s Yemen branch.
AQAP has taken advantage of the war turmoil led by Houthi militiamen against forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to grab territory and operate more openly.
The group has claimed credit for several thwarted attacks on U.S.-bound airliners as well as the deadly assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.
Though AQAP boast as the deadliest branch of al Qaeda in the world, today the terrorist group is faced by ideological rivalry from the Islamic State which has siphoned off many of its fighters including a part of affiliated Al-Shabaab shifting allegiance to the Islamic State
Suspected U.S. drone strikes, which normally use Hellfire missiles, have killed some of AQAP’s top leaders, including its chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi last June while in Somalia it has killed top Al-Shabaab leadership including Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of the Islamist militant group.
