Washington, June 18 (IANS): The US government Tuesday slapped sanctions on a leader of the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based militant group also known as AQAP.
The US State Department branded Shawki Ali Ahmed al-Badani as a specially designated global terrorist, Xinhua reported.
The Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on him that freeze all of his assets under US jurisdiction and bar American citizens from doing business with him.
The State Department described al-Badani as a leader and operative of the AQAP who sought to target the US embassy in Yemen's capital city of Sana'a, in 2012 and was linked to a suicide bomber who killed over 100 Yemeni soldiers in May 2012 attack.
The agency said the man also played a "key" role in a plan for a major attack in summer 2013 that forced the US to close 19 diplomatic missions across the Middle East and Africa.
It also said al-Badani is on Yemen's Most Wanted list and the Yemeni government has offered a bounty of 100,000 dollars on him.
The Obama administration is helping the Yemeni government fight the AQAP, which it listed as a foreign terrorist organization in January 2010.