| Khalid Saeed Batarfi | |||||||||||
| Birth Date: | Between 1978 and 1980[1] | ||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia[2] | ||||||||||
| Death Date: | March 2024 (aged 43–46) | ||||||||||
| Death Place: | Yemen | ||||||||||
| Native Name Lang: | ar | ||||||||||
| Other Names: | Abū al-Miqdād al-Kindī, Abū al-Miqdād al-Kanadī | ||||||||||
| Known For: | Emir of AQAP | ||||||||||
| Nationality: | Saudi Arabian | ||||||||||
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Khalid Saeed Batarfi (Arabic: خالد سعيد باطرفي|Khālid Saʿīd Bāṭarfī; 1978 to 1980 – March 2024), also known as Abū al-Miqdād al-Kindī (Arabic: أبو المقداد الكِنْدِي),[3] was a Saudi Arabian militant and the emir of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.[4] He oversaw the Yemen-based group's media network[5] and led jihadist fighters in their takeover of Yemen's Abyan Governorate in 2011, where he was accorded the position of emir.[6] [7] He also reputedly carried out terrorist attacks in the Abyan and Hadhramaut governorates.[5]
On 17 March 2011, Batarfi was captured by security forces in the Taiz Governorate.[5] For four years, he was imprisoned in Mukalla. He was freed, along with about 300 other inmates, by al Qaeda fighters on 2 April 2015, during the Battle of Mukalla.[4] [7] [8] The Washington Post compared the Mukalla prison break to the escape of 23 fighters, including future AQAP emir Nasir al-Wuhayshi, from a Yemeni prison in 2006, a formative event for the group.[9]
Batarfi attracted media attention when he posed for photographs taken by al Qaeda members in the Hadhramaut governor's palace, which fighters took over.[7] [10]
Batarfi was promoted to leader after the death of Qasim al-Raymi in January 2020.[11] In February 2021, the United Nations claimed that Batarfi was arrested during a security operation in Al Ghaydah in October 2020.[12] However, Batarfi later appeared in a video discussing the 6 January 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.[13]
The U.S. Rewards for Justice Program offered up to $5 million in exchange for information leading to Batarfi's apprehension.[1]
AQAP announced Batarfi's death on 10 March 2024 and announced Sa'ad bin Atef al-Awlaki as his successor. It did not give a cause of a death for Batarfi.[14]