Key Points
's branch of al-Qaida is dead, the militant group announced late Sunday, without giving details.. had a $5 million bounty on his head from the US government over leading the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, long considered the most dangerous branch of the extremist group still operating after the killing of founder..
The group made the announcement on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim holy fasting month that Yemen will begin Monday.. In the announcement, the group said Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki would take over as its leader..
The Yemen branch of al-Qaida has seen by Washington as the terror network's most dangerous branch ever since its attempt in 2009 to bomb a commercial airliner over the United States..
In 2015, he was freed after an AQAP raid that saw the militants capture Mukalla, the capital of Yemen's largest province, Hadramawt, amid the chaos that followed Yemen's Houthi rebels seizing the capital, Sanaa, and as a Saudi-led coalition started a war against the Houthis..
AQAP was later pushed out of Mukalla, but has continued attacks and been the target of a US drone strike campaign since the administration of then-President George W Bush...
