AQAP appoints its new leader: Saad bin Ataf Al-Awlaki

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) announced on Sunday, 10 March, in a video released by al-Malahem Media and whose speaker was veteran jihadist Khabib Al-Sudani (aka Ibrahim al-Qosi), a member of AQAP Shura Council, the death of leader Khaled al-Batarfi and the selection of Saad bin Atef Al-Awlaki (aka Abu Al-Layth) as the future leader.

Khaled Batarfi was going through a serious health crisis and was suffering from many illnesses. AQAP was suffering from a crisis of internal medical personnel internally. Batarfi’s health condition worsened after the death of Abu Abdullah Al-Suri, who was caring for Batarfi and taking care of his health. There is confirmation from numerous sources and propaganda material that Batarfi therefore did not die in combat but of a natural death due to his deteriorating

A profile of Saad bin Ataf Al-Awlaki

Very little is known about Saad bin Ataf Al-Awlaki (aka Abu Al-Layth). He is a Yemeni national, a Qaedist veteran, and is among those who travelled and trained in Afghanistan and then returned to Yemen. He was born in the town of Al-Shu’bah in Wadi Yasbam in the Governorate of Shabwa and is descended from the great Al-Awalaqi tribe, the same tribe from which AQAP’s spiritual father and major ideologue, Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone in 2011, comes.