Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Arabic: تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, romanized: Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit. 'Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula'), or AQAP, is a Salafi-jihadist militant organization which seeks to overthrow the Yemeni and Saudi governments. The group is based and primarily active in Yemen, while also conducting operations in Saudi Arabia and seeks to establish an Islamic emirate in the Arabian Peninsula. AQAP is widely considered to be the most radical branch of al-Qaeda and is viewed by al-Qaeda's central command as its most loyal and important franchise. 

During the 2000s, AQAP of Saudi Arabia carried out several mass-casualty attacks against civilian populations in Saudi Arabia. After the failure of its bombing campaign and the dismantling of al-Qaeda cells in Saudi Arabia, several AQ operatives fled to Yemen in the late 2000s and established AQAP.The group took advantage of the 2011 Yemeni revolution to seize and establish several emirates in southern Yemen, including in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan governorate. After being driven out through a government offensive in 2012, the group returned to an insurgent campaign rather than holding territory.AQAP would again capitalize on political turmoil in the country when the Yemeni civil war broke out in 2014. AQAP would reach its territorial peak in 2015, with the group seizing much of southern Hadhramaut governorate, including its capital Mukalla, recapturing their emirates in the south, and establishing a presence across multiple fronts in the civil war against the Houthis, most prominently in Aden, Al Bayda governorate and Taiz. Its strength has since waned due to internal struggles and operations waged against them by multiple parties in the civil war, as well as through an ongoing drone campaign by the United States which has killed many of its senior leaders and members.

Formed as a merger of al-Qaeda's Saudi and Yemeni branches in 2009, AQAP was established with the aim of carrying out mass-casualty terrorist attacks in several countries across the world on behalf of al-Qaeda Central. In 2011, AQAP created Ansar Al-Sharia (Arabic: جماعة أنصار الشريعة, Jamā‘at Anṣār ash-Sharī‘ah, "Group of the Helpers of the Sharia") as a subsidiary organization which would operate exclusively within Yemen. The group was created in order to appeal to youth and their issues within only Yemen and to distance themselves from the reputation attributed to the al-Qaeda organization. It was Ansar Al-Sharia which established various emirates across southern Yemen, though despite its nominal independence the group is widely understood as being a rebrand or direct extension of AQAP.

AQAP espouses a radical interpretation of the Wahhabi ideology, characterized by incitement to sectarian violence against Sufis and Shias in Yemen. In addition to its activities within the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP has conducted several high-profile attacks in the Western world such as the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in 2009, the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting, and the 2019 Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting.The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations, United States, Saudi Arabia, UAE and several other countries.