Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen has issued two new threats praising lone-wolf style attacks against the United States and are calling for more of them.
“We urge you to strike America in its own home and beyond,” says a letter attributed to Ibrahim al-Asiri, the master bomb-maker with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The group’s Yemeni branch, dubbed AQAP, is considered its most dangerous affiliate.
The letter states “America is first,” according to translation by SITE Intelligence Group. CNN was unable to verify that Asiri himself wrote the letter, though a U.S. counterterrorism official described it as “consistent with rhetoric the new leader stated upon taking over al Qaeda’s most active affiliate that is known to threaten Western interests.”
Asiri, who is said to be a key player in the 2009 Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Detroit-bound plane, has a $5 million bounty on his head. He also placed bombs in printer cartridges aboard U.S.-bound planes that were intercepted before they reached their targets.
“He’s without question the most dangerous terrorist operative that the United States faces today,” CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said, adding that he is believed to have taught his bomb-making skills to numerous other bomb-makers.
A second threatening video was also released, featuring another senior AQAP leader, Khalid Batarfi.
In the speech posted online, Batarfi praises the July attack on a military institution in Chattanooga, Tenn., as well as a gunman who attempted an attack in Garland, Texas, in May.
“Blood for blood,” He says, encouraging further lone-wolf attacks against America and the West: “To the warriors of Lone Jihad: may Allah bless and guide your efforts.”
A U.S. intelligence official said the second video is also believed to be genuine, as “Batarfi has become a main AQAP media figure since his escape from a Yemeni prison this spring.”
“[I]n terms of proximate threat, I would view … AQAP — even though they’re kind of consumed right now with what’s going on in Yemen with the Houthis — as probably our most concerning al Qaeda element in terms of threat to the homeland,” James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, recently told a conference in Aspen, Colo.
