Marib – Exclusive Report

Strikes against al-Qaeda have returned to Yemen’s Marib province, which has increasingly become a stronghold and safe haven for the group’s senior figures. Local sources say the area is also under the protection of several tribes loyal to the Islamist Islah Party.

A local source said that prominent al-Qaeda leader Abu Mohammed al-San‘ani was killed in a U.S. drone strike two days ago targeting a site used by the group in the Shabwan area of Wadi Ubaidah, east of Marib.

According to the source, al-San‘ani sustained critical injuries in the strike and later died inside one of the group’s secret hideouts as members attempted unsuccessfully to save him.

Al-San‘ani was regarded as one of al-Qaeda’s key figures in Yemen and was believed to serve as a link of coordination between al-Qaeda and the Houthi movement, though little is publicly known about his identity. No photographs or verified information about him have ever been released, except that he reportedly suffered from a permanent limp caused by an earlier battlefield injury.

The report added that the strike came after intensive monitoring of al-San‘ani’s movements, noting that he had previously survived an assassination attempt in Yemen’s Abyan province. The latest drone strike targeted a small gathering of al-Qaeda operatives, killing and injuring several members.

The operation is part of a renewed wave of U.S. drone activity against suspected al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) sites following months of relative calm, amid growing security concerns over the group’s presence in remote areas of Marib.