The Central State Security Agency in Yemen says a joint security operation killed Abu Hudhaifa al-Ansari, the man it identified as the official spokesman for Islamic State in Yemen, during a raid backed by coalition and local forces.
The account, published by Voice of Emirates, said the operation was carried out by special forces affiliated with the Coalition to Support Legitimacy and supported on the ground by the 22nd Brigade of Yemeni counterterrorism forces. Officials said the original aim was to capture the suspect alive, but he was killed during the clash.
The agency said the team withdrew once the mission was completed. It also said there were no civilian casualties or property damage reported. The report did not disclose the precise location of the operation, and it did not describe the final moments of the raid in detail.
The person identified as Abu Hudhaifa al-Ansari was also said to have been known as Mithaq al-Radfani, from Yemen’s Lahj governorate, and to have served as Islamic State’s spokesman in Yemen since August 2023. That detail, if confirmed, would make him one of the group’s more visible figures inside the country.
The operation lands in the middle of a wider security struggle that has not eased in Yemen despite years of war. Extremist groups continue to exploit the country’s fractured security landscape, while the internationally recognised government and the Houthi movement remain locked in a conflict that has persisted since late 2014.
For Yemen’s counterterrorism forces, the announcement is meant to signal both reach and coordination. But the account also leaves several basic questions unanswered, including where the raid happened, how long it lasted, and whether the security services obtained intelligence that led them to the target.
Even so, the reported killing of a figure described as ISIS’s spokesman is likely to be presented by Yemeni authorities as a notable disruption to the group’s media and command structure. The report did not say whether Islamic State had issued any statement in response.
The wider significance of the operation will depend on whether authorities can follow the raid with arrests, intelligence collection, or follow-on operations against any network linked to the suspect. For now, the public record is limited to the agency’s account and the coalition-backed claim that the target was neutralized during the attempt to seize him alive.
In a conflict defined by fragmented authority, even a single operation can have outsized symbolic value. But the absence of a location, photographic evidence, or direct confirmation from other independent sources means the account should still be treated as an official claim rather than a fully documented battlefield result.
