Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Sunday announced the death of its leader, Khalid Batarfi, the SITE Intelligence group said, according to Reuters.
In a statement, AQAP did not give a cause of death, according to SITE. It named Sa'd bin 'Atef al-Awlaki as his successor, the monitoring group added.
"Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm ... and waged jihad for his sake," SITE quoted a group leader as saying.
Batarfi was named as AQAP's leader in early 2020 after his predecessor, Qassim al-Raymi, was killed by the United States in what former president Donald Trump said was a counterterrorism operation in Yemen.
A previous leader of AQAP, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, was killed in an American air strike in June of 2015.
Batarfi was one of 150 jailed AQAP members who were freed when the group, regarded by the United States as one of the deadliest branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, captured the Yemeni port city of Mukalla in 2015, where he was being held.
AQAP has carried out many terrorist attacks in Yemen in recent years and has also targeted the West.
In 2015, the group claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris and then called for “lone wolf attacks” against Western targets.
In 2020, AQAP claimed an attack at a US naval base in Pensacola, Florida, though it provided no evidence.