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President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. at his direction has conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year's deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors. Al-Rimi is a founder of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The affiliate has long been considered the global network’s most dangerous branch for its attempts to carry out attacks on the U.S. mainland. Trump said the U.S. and its allies are safer as a result of his death. “We will continue to protect...

In a world of bad actors, one of the “baddest” of all is the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the CIA once branded “the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad.” It masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000; nearly blew up a U.S. passenger jet flying into Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009; brought down a UPS cargo plane in 2010; and sponsored the 2015 attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, killing 11 and wounding another 11. All of which raises an embarrassing question: Why is the United States supporting...

On his fifth day in the oval office, President Trump, over dinner with Secretary of Defense Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was presented with the first of many life-or-death decisions he will be required make. The mission presented to the President for his approval involved a raid on the small, heavily guarded brick home of a senior Qaeda collaborator in a mountainous village in a remote part of central Yemen. Mr. Obama’s national security aides had reviewed the plans but Obama would not approve the mission because the Pentagon wanted to launch the attack on...

Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill., died after he was wounded during a nighttime raid on an al-Qaeda-held village in southwestern Yemen on Saturday.

A U.S. commando died and three others were wounded a deadly dawn raid on the al Qaeda militant group in southern Yemen on Sunday, which was the first military operation authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump. The U.S. military said 14 militants died in the attack on a powerful al Qaeda branch that has been a frequent target of U.S. drone strikes. Medics at the scene, however, said around 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed.

Al Qaeda in Yemen claimed on today to have killed four men suspected of practicing witchcraft and sorcery in an area controlled by the jihadists. Residents of Mayfaa town in the southeastern province of Hadramawt said Al Qaeda militants had distributed a pamphlet naming the four men. It did not say when the killings were carried out, but a neighbor of one of the victims told AFP that he had been missing for days. "We have implemented Allah's ruling against them, which is the death sentence," said the flier that was also posted on walls in the area.

The U.S. Air Force and Navy rescued two Saudi pilots Friday after they ejected from their F-15 fighter over the Gulf of Aden during combat operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi jet apparently suffered some mechanical problem forcing the pilots to eject. A U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk special operations helicopter and crew were dispatched from Djibouti to rescue the Saudi pilots.

Secret intelligence files held by Yemeni security forces and containing details of American intelligence operations in the country have been looted by Iran-backed militia leaders, exposing names of informants and plans for U.S.-backed counter-terrorism operations, U.S. officials say. U.S. intelligence officials believe additional files were handed directly to Iranian advisors by Yemeni officials who have sided with the Houthi militias that seized control of the capital of Sana last September and later toppled the U.S.-backed president. For American intelligence networks in Yemen, the damage has been severe. Until recently, U.S. forces deployed in Yemen had worked closely with President Abdu...

The U.S. has removed all remaining personnel from Yemen as Shiite rebels controlling the country’s capital called for others to join its battle against government forces. The State Department said in a statement it is removing personnel due to the “deteriorating security situation” in the country. The State Department also said it will continue to engage the Yemeni people and international community to support the country’s political transition. […] The U.N. Security Council has called for an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Yemen as well. The closed-door meeting is expected to take place Sunday. …

A television network owned by Yemen's Shiite rebels says a total of 137 people were killed and 345 injured in quadruple suicide bombings that hit a pair of mosques controlled by the rebels in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. Al-Masirah TV raised the death toll on Friday hours after the attacks, making it the deadliest violence to hit the fragile war-torn country.

Obama's release of five more Yemeni terrorists from GITMO yesterday, one week after the terrorist attacks in Paris is beyond words. It wasn't outrageous enough that he didn't appear at the anti-terror march in Paris, he had to follow that up with what can only be described as a show of solidarity with Islamic terrorism since Yemen is where the two Kouachi brothers got their weapons training before their brutal attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine. To say the President of the United States is an Islamic extremist let alone Muslim is unfathomable. But how else can his 'no show' or...

BREAKING NEWS: The sister of American hostage Luke Somers says he was killed in a failed rescue mission in Yemen. Lucy Somers said: "We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace."

A Brentwood man was arrested Friday by FBI agents for attempting to join a branch of al-Qaida in Yemen, as well as for conspiring with a previously arrested Babylon man to wage "violent jihad," officials said. Marcos Alonso Zea, 25, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Central Islip to a five-count indictment accusing him of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. The other three counts, to which Zea also pleaded not guilty, involved obstruction of justice and attempted obstruction of justice in an effort to conceal his terrorist activities,...

ADEN (AFP) - A gun battle in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan left two suspected Al-Qaeda militants and a pro-government militiaman dead on Tuesday, an official from the militia said. Fighting between Al-Qaeda militants and the Popular Resistance Committees, which back the government, took place in Batis, northwest of the city of Jaar, the official said. Tuesday's violence erupted a day after a failed attack on the chief of the Committees in Abyan, Abdullatif Sayed. A blast targeted Sayed's car, but the militia official told AFP that he "escaped unharmed.” The militias, who recruit from the heavily-armed tribes in...

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A suspected U.S. drone killed four alleged al-Qaida members in Yemen on Tuesday, as the U.S. and British embassies evacuated staff amid reports of a threatened attack by al-Qaida that has triggered temporary shutdowns of 19 American diplomatic posts across the Muslim world. Yemeni officials have suggested al-Qaida threats to multiple potential targets in the Arabian Peninsula country in recent days, including foreign installations and government offices in the capital Sanaa as well as to the strategic Bab al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea to the south. It is not clear if these...

A drone strike in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa last month killed the top religious cleric for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a source close to the group said on Tuesday. "A drone strike had targeted Sheikh Adel al-Abab's vehicle but he escaped and fled to a mountainous region where a raid by another drone killed him immediately," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Abab had graduated from the Dawa Islamic studies center, in Sana'a and had served as the top religious cleric for AQAP. American drone strikes against Al-Qaeda terrorists are frequent in Yemen, home...

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Al Qaeda killed 16 soldiers in an attack on an army base in south Yemen on Friday, medical and military sources said, in a further show of strength by Islamist militants despite a U.S. campaign of drone strikes to neutralize them. Militants tightened their hold on parts of Yemen during an uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh in February, raising concern for the security of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia next door and nearby shipping lanes.

The US-born radical Islamist cleric and suspected al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen, the country's defence ministry has said. A statement said only that he died "along with some of his companions".

Should the US outsource its security to a war criminal? The global reach of al Qaeda in Yemen became clear when a Nigerian disciple of the murder cult nearly blew up an airliner over Detroit. In response, the Obama administration is strengthening its support for Yemeni President Ali Abdull...ah Saleh, one of the regions longest serving dictators and one of the most corrupt. President Obama said he hopes to communicate to “Muslims around the world that al Qaeda offers nothing except a bankrupt vision of misery and death, including the murder of fellow Muslims, while the United States stands with...

U.S. Federal officials have credible new intelligence of plans for another al Qaeda attack on the U.S., NBC reported. Officials say they have information that al Qaeda in Yemen is planning another attack but declined to give further details.