A prominent Saudi leader in Al-Qaeda was killed in the city of Ma’rib, the last stronghold of the Islah party loyal to the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen.
Activists from the city of Ma’rib said that Hamad Hammoud al-Othman al-Tamimi, a Saudi national judicial authority for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed last Sunday, along with one of his companions, in the US strikes on the house al-Tamimi rented recently in Hosoun Al-Jalal, east of the city.
The Saudi coalition forces in Ma’rib had refused to reveal the details of the raid and cordoned off the area targeted by the US raid last Sunday.
Previously, Al-Qaeda has mourned many of its leaders who were killed in air strikes while they were in the coalition-held Wadi Abaidah area of Ma’rib, while they were fighting alongside coalition forces on Ma’rib fronts.
According to the organization’s video, Al-Tamimi, who joined Al-Qaeda in 2002, was arrested in 2007, and placed in Al-Tarfiya prison in Al-Qassim area of Saudi Arabia.
The new operation may represent a blow to Saudi Arabia, which is using the organization to strengthen its grip on Ma’rib, in light of the resentment of the Islah party, the wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, at Riyadh’s measures to reduce its influence in the oil province.
Al-Tamimi joined Al-Qaeda in Yemen after the Saudi authorities released him in 2012.
