Yemeni al-Qaeda Claims Early December Pensacola Shooting

Trump retweets claim of AQAP leader being killed in strike

President Trump and Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have both offered claims, each without any proper evidence, of having been behind semi-recent attacks on the other. AQAP claimed the early December attack in Pensacola, while Trump implied US involvement in killing the AQAP leader.

On December 6, a Saudi Air Force member attacked and killed three people in Pensacola, during training at Naval Air Station Pensacola. AQAP is now claiming that the Saudi was working for them for years.

AQAP offered no direct evidence of this, referencing the gunman’s will, which made no mention at all of al-Qaeda. It is also doubtful, if AQAP was behind that, that they would fail to mention that for nearly two solid months.

Over the past few days, reports emerged claiming the death of AQAP leader Qassim al-Rimi. Some speculated this was by US drone attack, and President Trump appeared to confirm this, retweeting the claims and then tweeting a photo of himself swinging a golf club.

At the same time, Trump offered no evidence this was the case, the US never actually announced it, and the Pentagon issued a subsequent statement denying that the killing was in any way a US military operation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.