Al-Qaeda in Yemen

Al-Qaeda in Yemen
تنظيم القاعدة في اليمن Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Yemen
Flag used by the group from 2008 onwards
Also known as	Al-Qaeda in the Southern Arabian Peninsula (March 2008 – January 2009)
Founder	Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (POW)
Leaders	Abu Ali al-Harithi X (1998–2002) Muhammad al-Ahdal (POW) (2002–2003) Nasir al-Wuhayshi (2006–2009)
Dates of operation	1998–2003, 2006–2009
Group(s)	Al-Qaeda in Yemen Soldiers' Brigades of Yemen
Active regions	Yemen
Ideology	Sunni Islamism Salafi Jihadism Anti-Westernism Anti-Americanism Anti-Zionism Antisemitism
Size	20 members, 100 sympathizers (2002 estimate)[1] Low hundreds (2008 estimate)[2]
Part of	Al-Qaeda
Allies	Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia Aden-Abyan Islamic Army
Opponents	Yemen  United States  United Kingdom  France  Spain
Battles and wars	War on terror Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
Succeeded by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Al-Qaeda in Yemen (AQY),^[a] later known as al-Qaeda in the Southern Arabian Peninsula (AQSAP)^[b] from March 2008 onwards, was a Sunni Islamist militant organization which operated as al-Qaeda's local affiliate in Yemen. The group operated in two iterations; once between 1998 and 2003, and from 2006 to 2009.^[3]

Al-Qaeda activity in Yemen first began as Abdul Rahim al-Nashiri received permission from Osama bin Laden to plan an attack in the country in 1998. Some time between then and before 2000, Bin Laden also authorized Abu Ali al-Harithi to travel to Yemen and begin planning attacks. Harithi would be recognized as the leader of AQY, which was characterized as a collection of al-Qaeda cells which organized around discrete terrorist plots and aiding the international al-Qaeda network. Nashiri's planning would culminate in the USS Cole bombing in October 2000. The bombing, which was followed by the September 11 attacks a year later, lead to the Yemeni government launching a significant counterterrorism campaign against AQY. The group would perpetrate another high-profile bombing in October 2002 against the French oil tanker MV Limburg, but a drone strike the month after killed Harithi, providing a significant blow to the group's operational capacity. After a further crackdown by Yemeni authorities and the arrest of the group's replacement leader, Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, in November 2003, the first iteration of AQY was effectively defeated.

The second iteration of AQY emerged in the aftermath of the 2006 Sanaa prison escape, which freed a number of al-Qaeda figures. The prison break occurred during the emergence of a second, more radical generation of jihadists in Yemen, which showed greater ambition than their older counterparts and rejected any dialogue with the Yemeni government. This generation coalesced around the leadership of escapees Nasir al-Wuhayshi and Qasim al-Raymi, both al-Qaeda veterans from Afghanistan. Wuhayshi, Bin Laden's former secretary, rebuild AQY in a way which would allow it to withstand leadership losses which had destroyed it beforehand. The group would launch an unsuccessful double-suicide car bombing in September 2006. Wuhayshi was formally declared leader of the group in June 2007, before a suicide bombing a month later killed eight Spanish tourists. 2008 saw the release of the group's e-magazine Sada al-Malahem, along with the emergence of the Soldiers' Brigades of Yemen, a splinter faction which launched a string of unsophisticated attacks throughout the year. It was also during the year that AQY renamed itself to al-Qaeda in the Southern Arabian Peninsula (AQSAP). In September 2008, the group launched an attack on the United States embassy in Sanaa, killing 19 people in what was its most complex operation to date.

In January 2009, AQSAP announced its merger with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Saudi Arabia to form al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

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