Khalid Batarfi
Khalid Saeed Batarfi,, also known as Abū al-Miqdād al-Kindī, is a Saudi Arabian militant and the current emir of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He oversaw the Yemen-based group's media network and led jihadist fighters in their takeover of Yemen's Abyan Governorate in 2011, where he was accorded the position of emir. He also reputedly carried out terrorist attacks in the Abyan and Hadhramaut governorates.
On 17 March 2011, Batarfi was captured by security forces in the Taiz Governorate. For four years, he was imprisoned in Mukalla. He was freed, along with about 300 other inmates, by al Qaeda fighters on 2 April 2015, during the Battle of Mukalla. The Washington Post compared the Mukalla prison break to the escape of 23 fighters, including future AQAP emir Nasir al-Wuhayshi, from a Yemeni prison in 2006, a formative event for the group.
Batarfi attracted media attention when he posed for photographs taken by al Qaeda members in the Hadhramaut governor's palace, which fighters took over.
Batarfi was promoted to leader after the death of Qasim al-Raymi in January 2020.
