White House confirms death of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader


The White House announced on Thursday evening that the leader and co-founder of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Qassim al-Rimi, was killed last month in a counterterrorism operation in Yemen.
Formed in 2009, Yemen-based AQAP claimed responsibility for last year's shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors. Rimi was a target of a January 2017 raid on an Al Qaeda compound in Yemen, and in the days following it he released a video taunting President Trump over the failed operation, saying, "the new fool in the White House received a painful slap across the face."
"The United States, our interests, and our allies are safer as a result of his death," the White House said. "We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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