The US State Department has announced that it is offering rewards of $5 and $10 million for information concerning two Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leaders identified as Qasim al-Raymi (or al-Rimi) and Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi. According to intelligence reports, the two attended al Qaeda training camps in pre-9/11 Afghanistan before relocating to Yemen, where they eventually assumed leadership positions.
Qasim al-Raymi (or al-Rimi) was named AQAP’s emir in June 2015 after his predecessor, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was killed in an American drone strike. He is believed to have “trained terrorists at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the 1990’s a role that he assumed well in his twenties. He has been liked with crimes such as assassination plot on the US Ambassador to Yemen. Raymi and other al Qaeda veterans escaped prison in 2006 and relaunched AQAP in early 2009. Raymi previously served as AQAP’s “military commander” and ran a training camp in Abyan.
Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi. Like Raymi, Batarfi is a veteran of Al Farouq, where he was trained after traveling to Afghanistan in 1999. Batarfi “fought alongside the Taliban against US forces and the Northern Alliance” in 2001.
