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Nasser al-Wuhayshi, Al Qaeda Yemen Leader, Confirmed Dead in U.S. Strike Killing Terrorists May Be Only Victory Left for U.S.
(about 4 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen released a video statement on Tuesday confirming the death of its leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in an American missile strike last week. His death was also confirmed by the Obama administration on Tuesday. WASHINGTON — Twice in the last week, the United States has focused its vast manhunting machinery on tracking down and striking terrorist leaders in anarchic countries that for the White House once embodied the promise of the Arab revolutions across the Middle East.
Mr. Wuhayshi, 38, who had led Qaeda operations in Yemen since 2002 and was also the global extremist network’s second-ranking leader, was killed along with two other operatives, the statement said. A drone strike in Yemen killed Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who had built a terror franchise feared in the capitals of the West. Days later, the Pentagon dispatched F-15 jets to Libya to kill Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who in 2013 planned the seizure of an Algerian gas plant in which 38 foreign hostages died. On Tuesday, it was still uncertain whether he had been among those killed in the attack.
The group said that its military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, had been chosen as Mr. Wuhayshi’s successor. The strikes may prove to be lasting victories for the mode of long-distance warfare embraced by President Obama, but the ultimate impact of killing terrorist leaders like Mr. Wuhayshi remains to be seen. The administration and its foreign allies have been unable to stem the chaos in Yemen and Libya, and hopes that a new democratic order could emerge after the fall of dictators have been reduced to far more humble goals.
“Let it be known to the enemies of God that their battle is not only with one person or figure, no matter how important,” a senior Qaeda operative, Khaled Batarfi, said in the statement. “To the infidel America: God has kept alive those who will trouble your life and make you taste the bitterness of defeat.” In the 18 months remaining in Mr. Obama’s presidency, and with Qaeda and Islamic State fighters filling a power vacuum in both Yemen and Libya, the occasional killing of militant leaders might be the most the administration can hope to achieve in the two war-racked countries.
The Qaeda statement apparently resolves uncertainty about the fate of Mr. Wuhayshi, but the result of an attack over the weekend on another prominent militant was in doubt. Over the weekend, American F-15s carried out an airstrike in Libya against Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who planned an attack on an Algerian gas plant in 2013 in which 38 foreign workers died. It was unclear whether the missiles had hit their target. “At the moment, we’re very limited in what we can do in places like Yemen and Libya,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He said that in Yemen, Obama administration officials had once spoken about economic development, improving water supplies and rebuilding civil society.
The White House statement called Mr. Wuhayshi’s death “a major blow to AQAP, Al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate, and to Al Qaeda more broadly.” The term stands for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Mr. Wuhayshi oversaw “the group’s plotting against the United States, U.S. interests in the Arabian Peninsula, and those of our allies in the region,” and was responsible for the “deaths of innocent Yemenis and Westerners, including Americans,” the statement said. “Now,” he said, “we’re pretty much back to counterterrorism operations.”
Mr. Wuhayshi’s death, the statement added, “removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader, and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups.” Mr. Wuhayshi is the most senior Qaeda operative killed since Osama bin Laden in 2011 — he had assumed the role of the global terror network’s second-ranking leader — and American officials said his death would disrupt Qaeda operations throughout the region. In a statement released on Tuesday, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said its military commander, Qassim al-Raymi, had been chosen as Mr. Wuhayshi’s successor.
Despite the recent deaths of Mr. Wuhayshi and several other senior leaders, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has grown more formidable in Yemen over the last few months, capitalizing on the civil war there to capture territory and forge new alliances with Sunni tribes to fight the Houthis, a Shiite rebel group from the north that controls large parts of the country. “Let it be known to the enemies of God that their battle is not only with one person or figure, no matter how important,” a senior Qaeda operative, Khaled Batarfi, said in a statement. “To the infidel America: God has kept alive those who will trouble your life and make you taste the bitterness of defeat.”
In early April, Al Qaeda seized control of Al Mukalla, Yemen’s fifth-largest city, reportedly capturing millions of dollars from the vaults of the central bank. The city, which is in a remote coastal area, has remained relatively untouched by the spreading civil war. A spokesman for the National Security Council, Ned Price, on Tuesday called Mr. Wuhayshi’s death a “major blow” to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He said it “removes from the battlefield an experienced terrorist leader and brings us closer to degrading and ultimately defeating these groups.”
Saudi Arabia, which is leading an air offensive against the Houthis that began in late March and has carried out airstrikes across the country, has not taken any military action against Al Qaeda in Al Mukalla. The militant group is also fighting the Houthis. “The president has been clear that terrorists who threaten the United States will not find safe haven in any corner of the globe,” Mr. Price said.
The militants’ high profile in Al Mukalla – where they interact openly with residents, and regularly patrol the streets — may have made them more vulnerable. The editor of a local news website, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal by the militants, said they had likely been “infilitrated” by spies. The 2011 collapse of the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen led to glimmers of hope for a brighter future there. Mr. Saleh had governed the country for decades, pitting various factions inside the country against one another to shore up power. His successor, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, became a close partner of the Obama administration, working to develop a counterterrorism strategy as well as a broader campaign of economic and political development in Yemen.
The Qaeda men had “made themselves too visible” in the city, he added. “They are available in mosques, markets and restaurants. Mobile phone sellers say the militants enjoy buying smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy. In the afternoons, they park their cars outside local restaurants and have their favorite meal – fried chicken,” he said. “It would be easy for anyone to catch them.” But Yemen dissolved into full-blown civil war last year as Shiite Houthi rebels took over Sana, the capital, and forced Mr. Hadi and his ministers into exile. Al Qaeda has gained strength in the anarchy and has forged new alliances with Sunni tribes to fight the Houthis. In April, the group seized control of Al Mukalla, Yemen’s fifth-largest city, reportedly capturing millions of dollars from the vaults of the central bank.
At least three senior militants, including Mr. Wuhayshi, have been killed in recent weeks while sitting by Al Mukalla’s seaside. A resident of the city who said he witnessed the drone strike that killed Mr. Wuhayshi on June 9 said that three militants – he did not recognize any of them at the time – got out of a black pickup truck and sat in a picnic area by the water. At sunset, the men went to pray at a nearby mosque. After prayers, the witness said he heard “two big, consecutive explosions.” Adding to the violence in Yemen is an air campaign led by Saudi Arabia to dislodge the Houthis from control of Sana. The Obama administration is backing the offensive with intelligence and logistical support, which has put the United States in the strange position in Yemen of attacking Al Qaeda and the terror group’s main enemy, the Houthis, at the same time.
When he approached the scene of the explosions, he saw body parts, and “the upper part of a bearded and bloodstained man.” Armed men quickly arrived, telling bystanders to stay away in case of another strike. “Al Qaeda did not allow people to take photos of the scene, until an hour after the explosion,” he said. “If you’re looking for logic here, you’re not going to find much,” said Stephen Seche, who was the United States ambassador to Yemen from 2007 to 2010. Still, Mr. Seche said that America’s ability to mitigate the violence and political stalemate in Yemen and Libya was so limited that the Obama administration had little choice but to focus on the narrow mission of counterterrorism operations.
As recently as Monday, though, American officials were saying that they were still investigating reports of Mr. Wuhayshi’s death, an indication of the murky nature of the Obama administration’s policy of using missile strikes to remotely kill people it believes to be militants, with little certainty about who the missiles have struck. As the revolt against Mr. Saleh was taking hold in Yemen in 2011, Libyans rose up against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. When he appeared to threaten to kill thousands of civilians, a broad coalition of European and Arab countries joined the United States to contain and then oust the Libyan dictator.
In the video statement, Mr. Batarfi said the militant group had been able to agree on the selection of Mr. Raimi as Mr. Wuhayshi’s successor despite the group’s many distractions, including fighting the Houthis and their allies “on more than 11 fronts.” This “leading from behind” approach of the Obama administration drew derision from some Republicans. But the campaign was effective, relieved the United States of assuming the whole burden of the campaign and seemed to promise at least a possibility of peaceful progress.
Those prospects were swiftly overtaken by a geographic, tribal and ideological power struggle.
“The hope was to work with allies and local groups to reduce or contain the chaos,” said Daniel L. Byman, a professor at Georgetown and the research director of the Middle East program at the Brookings Institution. “But the violence took on a life of its own.”
When Mr. Obama ran for president in 2008, he was sharply critical of the George W. Bush administration for failing to plan adequately to keep order after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mr. Byman noted. Now, Mr. Obama faces similar accusations about Libya, Yemen and other countries.
But Daniel Benjamin, who was the State Department’s top counterterrorism official from 2009 to 2012 and is now at Dartmouth, said the idea that proper planning might have changed the outcome ignored the scale and pace of the greatest change in the Middle East since World War I.
“The forces that drove the Arab Spring were of such enormous dimensions that it’s unrealistic to think any president or any group of leaders could steer these events,” Mr. Benjamin said.
Some point to the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States committed hundreds of billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of troops. Both countries remain mired in conflict.
“We have to recognize after Afghanistan and Iraq the limited ability to shape events even by using overwhelming military force,” Mr. Schiff said. “The battles can be won. They just don’t stay won.”