The US State Department posted a $7 million reward Wednesday for information leading to the location or identification of Abu Ubaydah Youssef Al-Annabi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The department said Anabi was declared the emir of the northern Africa region branch of Al-Qaeda in November 2020 and his predecessor, Abdelmalek Droukdel, was killed five months earlier. It said Anabi is an Algerian citizen also known as Yazid Mubarak. He has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri as AQIM’s leader, according to the State Department. Previously he was on AQIM’s Council of Notables, its Shura Council, and also has acted as the AQIM media chief. In 2015 the State Department listed him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
AFP
Yazid Mubarak (: أبو عبيدة يوسف العنابي; born 7 February 1969), better known by his Abu Ubaidah Youssef al-Annabi, is an Algerian militant who is the current leader of the Algerian group (AQIM), formerly the (GSPC). In November 2020, he was named emir, replacing who was killed during a French special operation during the .
The U.S. is offering up to $7 million in exchange for information leading to al-Annabi's apprehension.
Biography
[]Youssef al-Annabi was born in , . After studying economics at the , he became an active militant of the (FIS), an political party created in 1989. A year after the end of the electoral process in January 1992, Youssef al-Annabi, freshly graduated, joined the ranks of the (AIS) to fight in the , then those of the where he met in 1996.
He rose in rank by participating in the creation of the in 1998. In November 2009, Youssef narrowly escaped death when he fell into an ambush by the Algerian army in the maquis of Imsouhel, in the wilaya of .
After the death of , AQIM announced on 21 November 2020 that Abu Ubaidah Youssef al-Annabi had been appointed to succeed him.
On 29 September 2015, the designated al-Annabi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order (E.O.) 13224.
On 28 March 2023, the government of suspended the broadcasting of French state-owned media after they aired an interview with al-Annabi. The country's information minister at the time, , described the channel as, "not only acting as a mouthpiece for these terrorists but worse".
