SUMMARY
The formation of AQAP (al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula) was announced on 23 January 2009. AQAP was formed through a merger of the al-Qaida offshoots in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The merger was announced in a video speech by the four leaders of the group; the Secretary-General of the al-Qaida Organisation in Saudi Arabia, Abu Sufyan al-Azdi Said al-Shihri, the Commander of AQAP, Abu Basir Nasir al-Wahishi, the Military Major of AQAP, Abu Hurairah Qasim al-Rimi and the Field Commander of AQAP, Abul-Hareth Mohammed Al-Awfi. Al-Wahishi and al-Rimi were both among a group of 23 prisoners that had escaped Sanaa prison in 2006. The other two, al-Shihri and al-Awfi, had both been detainees at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, but were released to the custody of the Saudi government’s reintegration program for militants. However, both left the program after a few weeks. Nasir al-Wahishi, formerly the commander of al-Qaidah in Yemen since 2002, served as the overall leader of AQAP until his death in US drone strike on 12 June 2015. Al-Wahishi simultaneously was the deputy to the Emir of al-Qaida Central, Ayman al-Zawahiri, from 2013 until his death, and had widely been considered as a likely successor to al-Zawahiri. Al-Wahishi was succeeded by Qasim al-Rimi, until he was killed in another US airstrike on 29 January 2020. Khalid Saeed Batarfi (also known as Abu al-Miqdad al-Kind) then took over as leader until his death was announced by AQAP on 10 March 2024, without specifying the cause. Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki has since been announced as the new leader of AQAP.
AQAP claimed that the two groups had merged in order to launch a holy war in the Arabian Peninsula and establish an Islamic State. In the first statement, the whole Arabian Peninsula was targeted, although with a special focus on Saudi Arabia. Yemen was described as the groups new base and Muslims all over the world were encouraged to travel to Yemen and join AQAP. In a later statement, the group also called upon the tribal leaders in Yemen to fight against the Yemeni government and support the al-Qaida members living in their areas. 2009 was the first time al-Qaida cells in Yemen directed their threats and attacks against the Yemeni government.
In late 2009, AQAP also criticized Ansarallah's religious beliefs and customs. Ansarallah is a Shia group, originating from the large Huthi tribe in northern Yemen, which has been involved in a protracted armed conflict with the government since 2004. AQAP attacked Ansarallah for the first time in 2010.
The international interest in Yemen increased significantly during 2010 as the threat from AQAP continued to grow. Following the failed bombing attempt of an airliner heading to Detroit, USA, on 25 December 2009, which was later claimed by AQAP, there had been growing concern that AQAP would continue to strengthen its positions and pose an increasing threat outside Yemen. In this light, a one-day summit on Yemen was held in London on 27 January. The conference was attended by the foreign minister of Yemen, foreign ministers from the G-8 countries and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) as well as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The conference resulted in a pledge to support the government of Yemen’s efforts to fight AQAP, as well as other forms of terrorism. A further conference was held in Saudi Arabia on 27-28 February. In December 2009, USA launched two missile strike from against AQAP strongholds in Yemen, the first verified involvement of the USA as a secondary warring party to the government of Yemen against AQAP.
AQAP received renewed international attention when parcels containing explosives were discovered on two cargo airliners bound for the USA on the 29 October 2010. The parcels were discovered in the UK and in the United Arab Emirates. Both parcels had been sent from Yemen by AQAP.
AQAP managed to capture large swathes of territory in southern Yemen in 2011, and the conflict escalated drastically. President Ali Abdullah Saleh's grip on power weakened during the year as tribal leaders and military units defected in favor of the Arab Spring protests that had erupted in January. AQAP thus became a powerful entity with territorial control in Yemen, declaring an “Islamic Emirate of Abyan”. At this time the group occasionally used the name Ansar al-Sharia when it presented itself in newly captured territory. Abu Zubayr Adl al-Abab, a prominent member of AQAP, stated that the group had recently adopted this new name in order to inform people of their work and goals. The new name did, however, not replace “al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula” as the group’s formal name. As Saleh's grip on power weakened, AQAP fought some of the groups that competed to fill the power-vacuum, notably the dissident military units in the Free Yemeni Army and Ansarallah.
The conflict between the Government of Yemen, now ruled by Saleh's former Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi, and AQAP continued to escalate in 2012. In May, the Yemeni military launched a large-scale offensive in order to regain control of the areas captured by AQAP in 2011. The government troops, backed by local tribes, managed to regain control of the important port city of Zinjibar in June and subsequently also the neighbouring towns of Shaqra and Jaar, following intensive fighting that also displaced tens of thousands of people. Later in the summer, AQAP was ousted from several other towns in southern Yemen.
After having lost the urban areas captured in 2011, AQAP made a strategic shift during the second half of 2012 and focused more on high-profile assassinations, suicide bombings and hit-and-run attacks. A large number of high-ranking security officers were killed in these attacks, including the military commander of the Southern Region of Yemen. The group continued with these tactics in 2013 and 2014, but despite a number of deadly attacks claiming large number of lives, the violence did not reach the same intensity as in 2012. However, the violence escalated in 2014 and passed the UCDP threshold of war (at least 1000 battle-related deaths in one year) once again.
In 2015, Ansarallah ousted the government led by President Hadi and took control over the capital in January. According to UCDP definitions, Ansarallah was then seen as the Government of Yemen. The Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council (formerly Forces of Hadi), thereafter seen as a non-state actor, became the main actor combating AQAP, meaning that most violence occurred in the non-state category of violence (see AQAP - Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council).
AQAP and Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council, together with allied tribes, have clashed repeatedly since 2015, mainly in the southern parts of Yemen. On 2 April 2015, as a result of the chaos that followed Ansarallah's capturing Sanaa, AQAP managed to take control of Mukalla, a major port city in the southeast of Yemen. Up until 2017, much of the violence was centered on the towns of Adan and Mukalla. AQAP has remained active in Yemen, though it gradually weakened to a shadow of its former self after it lost control of Mukalla in April 2016, suffering from further territorial losses, leadership losses to airstrikes by the USA (in support of the Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council) and defections to IS. Since then, AQAP has mainly been limited to having a presence in rural areas, and have avoided direct confrontations, favoring using ambushes and IEDs. Due to AQAP's weakening, the state-based conflict with the Ansarallah-government was last active in 2018.
A significant portion of the violence during 2017-2020 consisted of drone strikes conducted by the United States in support of the Forces of Hadi, though this support dried up following the election of President Biden. AQAP saw some resurgence in activity in 2022, as the security situation in Abyan deteriorated due to internal strife within the Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council, through which PLC faction Southern Transitional Council (STC) took over security in areas with a strong AQAP presence, leading to clashes between them and AQAP. Violence decreased again as STC solidified its control in these areas. In 2025, following the re-election of President Trump, the United States resumed supporting the PLC with airstrikes. As the STC once again rebelled against the PLC in late 2025, AQAP increased its targeting of STC forces, making the AQAP-STC conflict active.
AQAP has been involved in a state-based conflict with the Government of Yemen, as well as various non-state conflicts. For information on US drone attacks against AQAP from 2015 and later, see the non-state conflict AQAP - Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council.
