1. Some news: Last November, an on-the-ground informant in Yemen shared a key piece of information with the United States: The location of Qassim al-Rimi, the head of al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the region. This week, a CIA drone took aim at him: nytimes.com/2020/01/31/wor… via @NYTimes
2. The United States has not yet confirmed whether the strike they took killed al-Rimi, the head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. But in Yemen, local news outlets reported that a strike in Wadi Abedah, a known hotbed of al-Qaeda killed two, unidentified militants.
3. al-Rimi is one of the few al-Qaeda leaders still left who can trace his terrorist pedigree to the pre-9/11 era. He trained in al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan, before returning to his native Yemen, explains @thomasjoscelyn. 
@thomasjoscelyn 4. In Yemen, he was imprisoned for a plot to kill the US ambassador to Yemen. After being busted out of jail, he quickly rose through the ranks of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and according to the State Department, he played a part in AQAP's signature plots.
@thomasjoscelyn 5. Among the plots he was involved with was the so-called "Underwear Bomber." Remember him? The militant who boarded a Detroit-bound flight with a bomb in his undies? He managed only to burn his groin, but officials have long said that the plot came dangerously close to working.
@thomasjoscelyn 6. al-Rimi's growing importance in the al-Qaeda network can be traced by the amount of money that @StateDept put up for information leading to him. Initially set at $5 million, the bounty was doubled to $10 million in recent years:
@thomasjoscelyn @StateDept 7. We are waiting to hear from officials whether the strike succeeded. Much like Baghdadi, al-Rimi been declared dead before, only to resurface. Folks we spoke to urged caution. If he was taken out, it's another blow to al-Qaeda which has suffered the death of numerous leaders
@thomasjoscelyn @StateDept 8. Our story, with reporting by @EricSchmittNYT, @julianbarnes @saeedalBatati and myself: nytimes.com/2020/01/31/wor…
