Top AQAP Commander Freed Amid Yemen Unrest

The Saudi-led airstrikes continue all across Yemen against Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels while the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was able to capture the port city of Al-Mukalla. The capture of Al-Mukalla also led to the release of about 300 AQAP militants from the Central Prison, including Khaleed Saeed Batarfi.

Batarfi is an al-Qaeda senior commander in charge of the southeastern province of Yemen, a former member of the militant’s shura council, and is responsible for al-Qaeda’s social media propaganda. Batarfi was arrested while traveling to Taiz, Yemen in 2011. At the time he was found possessing a computer, grenades, an automatic weapon, a GSM phone chip and instructions on how to build explosives.

Khaled Saeed Batafi’s true name is Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi. Batarfi was a detainee of Guantanamo Bay since his capture in Afghanistan in 2002 until April 2009 when President Obama’s questionable new procedures were put in place to review and analyze current GITMO prisoners. The decision for release also came days before Mr. Batarfi’s habeas corpus hearing was scheduled challenging his imprisonment.

According to his GITMO Assessment, Batarfi has a mental history of paranoid schizophrenia.  Before his imprisonment, he was a chief medical examiner for the al-Wafa NGO, an Al-Qaeda and Taliban linked medical organization which operated out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Batarfi provided extensive assistance to Yazid Sufaat, one of al-Qaeda’s anthrax researchers in Afghanistan who also participated in the planning behind the September 11^th attacks. Batarfi’s intelligence value was marked as “HIGH” by GITMO officials possibly due to the fact that he had distinct knowledge of Usama bin-Laden and information regarding Al Qaeda’s anthrax program.

Terrorists groups like AQAP use prison breaks to free loyalists, as well as force common criminals to join the ranks as foot soldiers in exchange for their release. Abdullah al Sharafi, a Yemeni defense ministry official, said that about one-third of the extremists who were freed were AQAP militants.   During the assault, four prison guards, five prisoners, and three extremists were killed in the crossfire.

Al-Mukalla is the capital city of the eastern province Hadramaut and had been under the control of Yemeni security forces that still remained loyal to exiled President Hadi. The fall of President Hadi’s government can be seen as a major loss in President Obama’s counterterrorism effort against AQAP. AQAP is still widely considered Al Qaeda’s strongest branch, with the greatest ability to target the United States’ homeland, despite the Islamic State’s monopolization of media attention.

Saudi-led airstrikes are now focusing on Aden in the hope that they can repel the Houthis in order for Yemeni President Hadi to make a possible return.

Hadi had fled the capital city of Sana’a when Houthis announced their formal takeover in February and installed a government to be led by 5 executive Houthi members.  The United States evacuated Yemen on March 20^th after AQAP fighters launched an attack on the city of al-Houta. With the United States emergency evacuation, they have lost all of their intelligence capabilities to monitor AQAP along with their capacity to monitor the power struggle in Yemen.