Daily US Times, Washington: The US killed Yemen Al-Qaeda leader Qasem al-Raymi in an airstrike. President Donald Trump said the killing took place in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Al-Raymi has led the jihadist group since 2015. He has been linked to a series of attacks on Western interests in the 2000s.

After his predecessor was killed by a US drone strike, he took the lead.

AQAP was formed in 2009 from two regional offshoots of Al-Qaeda in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Their goal is to toppling US-backed governments and eliminating all Western influence in the region.

Raymi’s death rumors were circulated in late January. But AQAP denied the rumor by releasing a voice recording of Raymi where he said AQAP was behind a deadly shooting at a US naval base in Pensacola, Florida.

The US drone strike took place in December, and the message may have been recorded earlier.

White House confirmed the death of Raymi, but did not mention when it happened.

The White House statement said: “His death further degrades AQAP and the global al-Qaeda movement, and it brings us closer to eliminating the threats these groups pose to our national security”.

The statement further added that the US United States, its allies and interests are safer as a result of his death.

In the 1990s, Raymi was a trainer at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He went to Yemen in 2004 and was imprisoned for five years in connection with a plot to attack five foreign embassies in the capital.

It is believed that Raymi has overseen the formation of al-Qaeda in Yemen.

AQAP once described by the US as “the most active operational franchise” of al-Qaeda beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Most of its attacks carried out in Yemen where the group has taken advantage of political instability.