Qasim Yahya Mahdi al-Raymi (Arabic: قاسم يحيى مهدي الريمي; 5 June 1978 – 29 January 2020) was a Yemeni militant who was the emir of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

After serving as AQAP's military commander, al-Raymi was promoted to leader after the death of Nasir al-Wuhayshi on 12 June 2015.

[7][1] After escaping from prison in 2006, al-Raymi, along with Nasir al-Wuhayshi, oversaw the formation of al-Qaeda in Yemen, which took in both new recruits and experienced Arab fighters returning from battlefields across Iraq and Afghanistan.

A few days later an anonymous Saudi official supplied documents to the Associated Press, which alleged that al-Raymi had "links to a plot targeting the U.S. ambassador in San'a.

[citation needed] Abu al-Raymi was the target of a raid on al-Qaeda camps in Yemen on 17 December 2009, which reportedly was carried out by U.S. cruise missiles.

However, according to officials, a Yemeni air strike on two cars, one of which reportedly contained al-Raymi, was conducted on Friday, 15 January 2010.

Al-Raymi announced the creation of an "Aden-Abyan Army" to free the country of "crusaders and their apostate agents," in an Internet audio tape.

[26] On 29 January 2017, al-Raymi was the supposed target of a military action undertaken by the United States known as the Yakla raid.

[28][29] On 18 October 2016, the US State Department announced that it is offering rewards of $5 and $10 million for information concerning al-Raymi and another AQAP leader.

[31][32] On 31 January 2020, The New York Times reported that three U.S. officials "expressed confidence" that al-Raymi, the emir of AQAP was killed by a U.S. airstrike on 29 January,[a] while traveling in a car with another senior AQAP leader, Abu Al-Baraa Al-Ibby, in the Yakla area of Wald Rabi' District, Al Bayda Governorate, Yemen, according to local sources, although there was no official confirmation.

[36] One of al-Raymi's brothers is Ali Yahya Mahdi Al Raimi, a Yemeni held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.