Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli (Arabic: ) (1977 – 3 June 2011, born in Yemen) became wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts. He was identified as a known associate of the Yemen cell leader, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei.
Al-Wa'eli was killed on 3 June 2011 by a US drone strike in Yemen. AQAP confirmed his death one month later.[1]
February 12, 2002 terror alert
On February 11, 2002, Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli was named in a suspected Yemen plot, for which he was among 17 suspected terrorists added to the FBI's third major "wanted" list, the "Seeking Information" list.
By February 2003, the FBI removed 6 suspects already jailed rearranged its wanted lists. Al-Wa'eli was one of the remaining eleven Yemen plot suspects.[2] By 2006, al-Wa'eli had been archived and removed from the FBI's current main wanted page, and were no longer included in the official count of suspects.[3]
Whether foiled, aborted, or merely incorrect specific intelligence, the February 12, 2002 attack never occurred. However, other attacks and plots in Yemen soon followed.
Yemeni airstrike
On January 15, 2010, The New York Times reported that Ammar al-Waeli, "an important arms dealer for Al Qaeda" escaped an airstrike in Yemen which killed "at least five senior members of Al Qaeda’s Arabian branch".[4]
References
- ^ Roggio, Bill, "AQAP confirms deaths of 2 commanders in US airstrike", Long War Journal, 21 July 2011.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 2, 2003. Retrieved June 3, 2003.
- ^ February 2002 Seeking Information Alert Archived October 17, 2002, at the Wayback Machine, photos with the remaining names, as archived by FBI
- ^ Senior Qaeda Figures Killed in Attack, Yemen Says,“A vehicle was seen leaving the area”