In the wake of another successful drone strike, we posted a new commentary “AQAP Loses Its Chief Of External Operations: Counterterrorism Implications.” The piece builds on our previous commentaries on Yemen and AQAP, including our Security Debrief post from July “Countering the threat posed by AQAP: Embrace don’t chase Yemen’s chaos.”
As we say in the commentary:
Awlaki’s demise improves U.S. security for several reasons. Awlaki’s elimination marks another in a recent series of setbacks for al Qaeda globally. More specifically, it immediately degrades AQAP’s operational planning capacity — especially with respect to plots against the U.S. homeland. Yet, killing Awlaki by no means signals the death knell of al Qaeda generally or even of AQAP specifically. As we argued previously, now is not the time to reduce the pressure being applied through the intertwined efforts of the U.S.’ intelligence and special operations communities.
We invite you to read the full commentary here.
