Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula kills 4 Yemeni soldiers in complex suicide assault

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) attacked the headquarters of the 1st Support and Reinforcement Brigade in Abyan, a southern coastal governorate in Yemen, on October 21. The complex suicide assault, which consisted of two car bombs and six AQAP fighters armed with explosive belts, killed four soldiers and injured 15 people. All six suicide bombers were also killed.

Brigadier General Nasr Atef al Yafei, commander of the brigade, said that “the terrorist elements attacked the headquarters using two car bombs,” according to Shield of the South, the official news outlet of the Southern Armed Forces. “The brigade’s forces managed to detonate the first near the main gate, while other elements attempted to infiltrate the complex. However, the forces valiantly confronted them, eliminating six suicide bombers wearing explosive belts.”

Seven terrorists were ultimately killed in the attack, according to 26 September News, the official news site of Yemen’s armed forces.

In a statement received by Yemen’s official news agency, Saba Net, the Ministry of Defense and the Presidency of the General Staff condemned the attack and praised the brigade for its success in countering the terrorists.

The 1st Support and Reinforcement Brigade is a pro-Southern Transitional Council (STC) force. The STC and its partners predominantly control Abyan, though Al Qaeda has been active in the eastern portion of the governorate.

The anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen is a fractured network of armed groups and political actors who are often at odds with each other, but share a generally anti-Houthi and anti-Al Qaeda ethos. Yemen’s armed forces, Ministry of Defense, and General Staff are associated with the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG) of Yemen. The STC is a partner in the IRG but disagrees with other elements of the government, most notably because it supports secession for southern Yemen. Despite being a governing partner, the STC maintains its own armed groups, including the Southern Armed Forces and the allied 1st Support and Reinforcement Brigade.

AQAP remains active in Yemen, despite setbacks

AQAP’s latest suicide assault is its most impactful attack since August 16, 2024, when an AQAP suicide bomber attacked an STC military base in Abyan and killed 16 soldiers.

AQAP was formed in 2009 by Nasir al Wuhayshi through the merger of Al Qaeda’s branches in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Wuhayshi was Osama bin Laden’s former aide-de-camp who rose to the rank of Al Qaeda’s general manager before he was killed in a US drone strike in June 2015. AQAP’s current emir is Saad bin Atef al Awlaki.

Shortly after its formation, AQAP launched a deadly and effective insurgency that led to the group controlling large areas of southern Yemen, including several provincial capitals, between 2011 and 2012, and again in 2015-2016. During that time, AQAP benefited from Yemen’s multifaceted civil war, which includes a weak central government and Iranian-backed Houthis that control the capital of Sanaa.

Though in a relatively weakened state compared to its operational height in the early-to-mid-2010s, AQAP remains a significant threat to Yemen and further afield. The United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions and Monitoring Team’s report from January 2024 noted AQAP’s media resurgence since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

On the ground, AQAP has intensified its military operations against both UAE-backed militias and hostile tribal forces in southern Yemen. The Monitoring Team also reported that AQAP has maintained strong ties with Al Qaeda’s central leadership, including Sayf al Adl, who is widely believed to be Al Qaeda’s current global emir. 

Bill Roggio is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the editor of FDD’s Long War Journal. Bridget Toomey is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focusing on Iranian proxies, specifically Iraqi militias and the Houthis.