Jared Daniels
Staff Writer
Qassim al-Rimi, an al Qaeda terror group leader, was killed during a United States airstrike in Yemen.
The airstrike in Yemen was reported to have occurred sometime in January. The airstrike was specifically made to target the al Qaeda leader. The airstrike was under the conduction of President Trump. The announcement of the leader’s death was not made until last Thursday, Feb 6, 2020.
“Middle eastern conflict is something that does affect us as an expression as American politics,” said Zachary Taylor, an assistant lecturer for the political science department, with research interests in comparative politics and American Government.
In a statement from President Trump, issued Feb 6 2020, it said this event brings the United States closer towards the goal of eliminating threats to national security. The report also stated the death of this leader would degrade the Arabian Peninsula of al Qaeda.
The death of the al Qaeda leader will be the third leader killed in the series of elimination of leaders in al Qaeda. The leaders who were killed earlier include; Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Oct, and Qasem Soleimani in January.
“It seems fairly common to seek out who the government determines as terrorist leaders, though I do not know if it is the most sustainable policy,” said Taylor.
Al-Rimi contributed to the foundation of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as well as its leader. He claimed to have been responsible for the attack on a Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, in January 2019. This attack claimed the lives of three United States sailors and wounded eight others. Al-Rimi worked under Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden.
The United States issued a 10 million dollar reward for the information on the leader prior to the strike. The United States put a similar bounty on the senior regional leader for the AQAP.
“I think it is well within the right of the President to do this, as the head of foreign policy,” said Taylor. Taylor expressed his hope that President Trump is listening to his advisors when determining his actions regarding this subject.
The al Qaeda group on the Arabian Peninsula was created in 2009 from the Yemen and Saudi-Arabian branches of al Qaeda. The subdivision of the terrorist group released videos calling for attacks on the United States following al-Rimi moving into the leader of the group in 2015.
“The question being is it a determination of United States policy or international policy on how we determine who to be a terrorist or not,” said Taylor.
