![Senior al-Qaeda figure Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi, who was killed in an air strike in Marib province, is seen here in a screen grab from a video aired on AQAP media outlet Al-Malahem. [Photo circulated on social media]](/cnmi_am/images/2023/03/01/40992-hamad-bin-hamoud-al-tamimi-700_496.webp)
A senior al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) figure was killed in an air strike that targeted a house in Yemen's northeastern province of Marib, security and local government sources said Wednesday (March 1).
Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi died in the strike along with a bodyguard, a security official said, requesting anonymity.
The air strike targeted a house in Marib province that al-Tamimi had recently rented, the official said.
The house, owned by three unnamed persons, was in the province's al-Hosen region, the Arab News reported.
![Yemenis gather around a car after it was targeted by a drone strike killing three suspected al-Qaeda militants on January 26, 2015, between Marib and Shabwa provinces. [AFP/STR]](/cnmi_am/images/2023/03/01/40990-aq-burnt-vehicle-700_496.webp)
Yemenis gather around a car after it was targeted by a drone strike killing three suspected al-Qaeda militants on January 26, 2015, between Marib and Shabwa provinces. [AFP/STR]
One other person was injured in the strike, the media outlet said, also reporting that al-Tamimi was "responsible for constructing bombs and other explosive devices that targeted security and military institutions around Yemen".
A Marib government official confirmed the deaths.
Al-Tamimi, a Saudi-born religious official also known as Abdel Aziz al-Adnani, headed AQAP's leadership council and acted as the group's "judge", sources said.
It was al-Tamimi who in a 16-minute video, aired February 23, 2020, on AQAP media outlet Al-Malahem, confirmed the death of the group's leader, Qassim al-Rimi, MEMRI TV reported.
Al-Rimi was killed in January 2020 in an air strike in Wadi Obeida.
In the video, al-Tamimi announced al-Rimi's successor, Khalid Batarfi.
He also referenced al-Rimi's final video message, in which the AQAP leader claimed al-Qaeda was responsible for a 2019 attack on a US Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, in which three members of the US Navy were killed.
Al-Tamimi said AQAP was "gladdened" that this had been al-Rimi's last message.
"Our slain love death, and their slain see being killed as a calamity," he said.
Strikes target al-Qaeda leaders
The attack comes a month after a senior al-Qaeda leader, in charge of manufacturing explosives, was killed alongside two of his companions in a January 30 air strike in Marib province.
The strike targeted the three men -- one of whom a local media outlet named as Hassan al-Hadrami -- as they travelled in a car near a gas station in Wadi Obeida.
Al-Hadrami was a key leader of the group and an experienced explosive manufacturer who had risen in the ranks because of his skill in this area.
Al-Qaeda elements previously have come under fire in the same area.
In December, the former manufacturer of explosives for al-Qaeda in Yemen, Abul Khair Abdul Wahed al-Najdi, was killed in a strike on a house in Wadi Obeida, according to Erem News.
Al-Hadrami was present with al-Najdi at the time of the strike but survived that attack, the news outlet reported.
Al-Rimi was killed in January 2020. And in December 2017, the AQAP propaganda chief, Saudi-born Abu Hajar al-Makki, was among six extremists killed in two separate strikes in Wadi Obeida.
AQAP, and rival militants loyal to the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), have thrived in the chaos of Yemen's war, which pits the internationally recognised government against Iran-backed Houthis.
AQAP has carried out operations against both the Houthis and Yemeni forces as well as sporadic attacks abroad.
