President Trump confirmed that one of the world’s top terrorist leaders, Qassim al Rimi, has been killed.
The 41-year-old Rimi was the leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, and the possibility of his death was reported earlier, although officials were wary to say for certain he was dead until confirmation was received. The State Department had a $10 million bounty on Rimi’s head.
“The United States conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qasim al-Rimi,” read a Thursday evening statement from the White House. “The United States, our interests, and our allies are safer as a result of his death.
“We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm,” the statement said.
Rimi was associated with a number of terrorist plots throughout the years, including a 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen. He was also connected to the 2009 terror plot by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a U.S. airliner using explosive-laden underwear.
Rimi was killed in the same month as a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The 62-year-old military commander was the leader of the Quds Force, an elite special operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops during the Iraq War.
In October, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was killed during a top-secret operation in northwest Syria. Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest while fleeing, killing himself and his three children.
The CIA declined to comment when contacted by the Washington Examiner.
