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', Arabic: تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في جزيرة العرب, romanized: Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit. 'Organization of Jihad's Base in the Arabian Peninsula'), or AQAP is a Sunni Islamist militant organization which seeks to overthrow the Yemeni government and establish the Islamic Emirate of Yemen. Part of the al-Qaeda network, the group is based and primarily active in Yemen, while also conducting operations in Saudi Arabia. It is considered the most active of al-Qaeda's affiliates that emerged after the weakening of central leadership.

Established in 2009 as a merger between al-Qaeda in Yemen and al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, 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.

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 pan-Islamist al-Qaeda. 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. 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.