A UN document said Khalid Batarfi, the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for just under a year, was arrested and his deputy, Saad Atef al-Awlaqi, died during an “operation in Ghayda City, Al-Mahrah Governorate, in October.”

The Iraqi prime minister has used Issawi’s killing to restore the public’s trust in the government and security forces, which had declined following two security setbacks in Baghdad and Saladin.

The leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been under arrest for several months, the United Nations disclosed Thursday in a development that may have opened up a goldmine of information for counterterrorism agencies in their campaign against the global al Qaeda network.