Qassim al-Rimi: Al-Qaeda deputy leader killed by US operation in Yemen, Trump says

White House says founder of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula killed in American raid

The US said Qassim al-Rimi was killed in a counter-terror operation in Yemen (AP)

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has been killed in a US counter-terrorism raid in Yemen, the White House has said.

Qassim al-Rimi, the terrorist group's Arabian Peninsula leader and the deputy to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed in the operation, which was ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Al-Rimi had claimed responsibility for last year's deadly shooting at Florida's Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.

He founded the peninsula's affiliate, which has been long considered the global network's most dangerous for its attempts to carry out attacks on the US mainland.

Mr Trump said the US and its allies are safer as a result of his death. “We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm,” he said.

In January, the US sent home 21 Saudi military students, saying the trainees had jihadist or anti-American sentiments on social media pages or had “contact with child pornography”, including in internet chat rooms.

Mr Trump's announcement confirmed earlier indications that al-Rimi had been killed.

In late January, a suspected US drone strike destroyed a building housing al-Qaeda militants in eastern Yemen. Also, on 1 February, Mr Trump retweeted several other tweets and media reports that seemed to offer confirmation that the strike had killed al-Rimi.

Associated Press