Iran Press/ West Asia: "Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm ... and waged jihad for his sake," SITE Intelligence monitoring group quoted AQAP statement.
'Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula' did not give a cause of Khalid Batarfi's death.
Batarfi was named AQAP's leader in early 2020 after his predecessor, Qassim al-Raymi, was killed by the United States in what former president Donald Trump said was a counterterrorism operation in Yemen.
Batarfi was one of 150 jailed AQAP members who were freed when the group, regarded by the United States as one of the deadliest branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, captured the Yemeni port city of Mukalla in 2015, where he was being held.
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