Yemen Al-Qaeda commander (AQAP) Abu Omar al-Hadhrami killed in US-led airstrike

The US has killed a prominent Al-Qaeda commander in an airstrike in Yemen named Salih bin Salim bin Ubayd ’Abolan, better identified as  Abu Omar al-Hadhrami. The terror operatives in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) announced the death of one of its commanders, although they did not specify the exact date for al-Hadhrami's death, sources told Sputnik. The US had conducted the airstrikes in Yemen on November 14, 2021, and it was then reported that the airstrike had killed at least three suspected members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida.

"Missiles fired by a US drone struck a travelling vehicle passing on the road between the provinces of al-Bayda and Shabwa in the country's southern part," a military official had told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. It killed at least three members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, and had injured two others including a woman, the official had said.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) network operates in eastern and southern provinces and had been behind a series of attacks within the territory. US Central Command CENTCOM has been leading military operations to disrupt AQAP attack networks and had earlier conducted several such air raids in al-Bayda Governorate where they had also neutralized Mujahid al-Adani, an AQAP Shabwah leader, as well as al-Bayda-based facilitator Abu Layth al-Sanaani and three AQAP associates. Al-Adani, better known by the name Mohammad Shukri. The latter was an AQAP military leader in Aden, he was a central figure in planning and conducting terrorist attacks against Yemeni and Saudi-led coalition forces.

al-Hadhrami headed al-Qaeda's efforts in Pakistan

Omar al-Hadhrami was reportedly affiliated with Abdu Ali Sharqawi, a Yemeni al-Qaeda associate, who also headed al-Qaeda's efforts in Lahore, Pakistan, according to Long War Journal, the US was involved in several drone strikes since  November 2002 in Yemen until the former Trump administration’s tenure in office, but as Biden took over the presidency, the United States ended support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen citing the worsening humanitarian crisis. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting against the Yemeni Houthi movement since 2015, and the AQAP reemerged in 2000. US had previously neutralized six al-Qaeda operatives who, it believed, were connected to the suicide bombing of the US Navy destroyer USS Cole in Aden.