Yemen’s al-Qaeda leader threatens Trump, Musk over Israel’s war on Gaza

Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, who is wanted by the US, challenges Houthi dominance of Arab and Muslim world’s absorption movement.

The person of al-Qaeda’s Yemen subdivision has targeted US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk implicit United States backing for Israel’s ongoing warfare connected the Gaza Strip and its besieged Palestinian population.

“There are nary reddish lines aft what happened and is happening to our radical successful Gaza,” said Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki successful a half-hour video connection that was dispersed online Saturday by supporters of al-Qaeda successful the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni subdivision of the equipped group.

“Reciprocity is legitimate,” helium said.

Al-Awlaki’s video connection besides included calls for alleged lone wolves to assassinate leaders successful Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab states implicit the war, which has decimated Gaza, sidesplitting astatine slightest 54,772 Palestinians implicit the past 20 months.

The connection featured images of Trump and Musk, US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, arsenic good arsenic logos of Musk’s businesses – including electrical carmaker Tesla.

Born successful 2009 from the merger of al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP is wholly chiseled from Yemen’s Houthi rebel group, which controls astir of the state and agreed to a ceasefire with the US earlier this month.

AQAP grew and developed amid the chaos of Yemen’s war, which has pitted the Houthis against a Saudi-led conjugation backing the authorities since 2015.

Al-Awlaki became the group’s person successful 2024, replacing predecessor Khalid Batarfi, who died that year.

He already has a $6m US bounty connected his head, having, arsenic Washington puts it, “publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies”.

Though believed to beryllium weakened successful caller years owed to infighting and suspected US drone strikes sidesplitting its leaders, the radical had been considered the astir unsafe subdivision of al-Qaeda inactive operating since the US sidesplitting of founder Osama bin Laden successful 2011.

United Nations experts estimation AQAP has betwixt 3,000 and 4,000 progressive fighters and passive members, claiming that it raises wealth by robbing banks and wealth speech shops, arsenic good arsenic by smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies and conducting ransom operations.

The Houthis person antecedently denied moving with AQAP, though the latter’s targeting of the Houthis has dropped successful caller years, portion its fighters support attacking the Saudi-led conjugation forces.

Now, with its absorption connected Israel’s warfare connected Gaza, AQAP appears to beryllium pursuing the pb of the Houthi group, which has launched rocket attacks connected Israel and targeted commercialized vessels moving done the Red Sea successful solidarity with Palestinians nether Israeli fire.

“As the Houthis summation popularity arsenic leaders of the ‘Arab and Muslim world’s resistance’ against Israel, al-Awlaki seeks to situation their dominance by presenting himself arsenic as acrophobic astir the concern successful Gaza,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen adept with the Basha Report hazard advisory firm.

“For a nationalist information and overseas argumentation assemblage progressively disengaged from Yemen, this video is simply a wide reminder: Yemen inactive matters,” helium said.