SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The leader of al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen has released an audio recording in which he describes President Donald Trump as the "White House's new fool" and says a recent U.S. raid against the group killed 25 people, including 11 women and children. Addressing his followers in the recording, which emerged late Saturday, Qassim al-Rimi says: "The White House's new fool has received a painful blow at your hands in his first outing on your land." The message was released online Saturday and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group 
 
 In the recording, Rimi also claimed "dozens of Americans were killed and wounded," a number starkly at odds with the US account, which reported the death of one Navy SEAL, Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens. A senior White House official, however, said that al-Rimi had been at the target site in the past and "the possibility of any capture drove the highest level deliberations." The recording's authenticity could not be immediately verified, but the voice was similar to that of previous recordings by al-Rimi. "These types of missions have many tracks and are part of many worlds outside of the Pentagon," the senior White House official said. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for operations in the Middle East, said they had not expected to find al-Rimi at the encampment. The White House, the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command had no comment on Monday, but issued a series of denials on Tuesday. "I can tell you it’s not true," he said, adding that the military “never had any hope, intention or plan" of killing or capturing the AQAP leader in the operation. "It wasn't a high-value target mission," Col. John Thomas told CNN, referring to operations aimed at killing or capturing terrorist leaders. Qassim al-Rimi, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP video via Reutes 
 
 It's not clear whether al-Rimi was at the al Qaeda camp but escaped when SEAL Team 6 and United Arab Emirates commandos descended, whether he happened to be elsewhere, or whether he was even tipped off. Military and intelligence officials told NBC News the goal of the massive operation was to capture or kill Qassim al-Rimi, considered the third most dangerous terrorist in the world and a master recruiter. But while one SEAL, 14 al Qaeda fighters and some civilians, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed during a firefight, al-Rimi is still alive and in Yemen, multiple military officials said.
– Military officials who've been trying to justify a Jan. 29 raid that killed a Navy SEAL in Yemen now say the goal was to capture al-Qaeda leader Qassim al-Rimi, who they believe escaped unscathed. They believe this because al-Rimi—considered the third most dangerous terrorist in the world, per NBC News—can be heard taunting President Trump in an 11-minute audio recording released over the weekend, which officials believe is authentic. "The new fool of the White House received a painful slap across his face," CNN quotes al-Rimi as saying. Al-Rimi also claims 25 people died in the raid, noting "dozens of Americans were killed and wounded," per the AP. The US military has said one Navy SEAL died and three others were wounded. A White House official tells NBC that Trump approved the raid after Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford told him al-Rimi's capture would be a "game changer." However, an official tells CNN that al-Rimi was not essential to the mission, which officials believed would lead to him one way or another. Though al-Rimi wasn't captured—it isn't clear if he was at the site—military officials have said the mission was "successful." Fourteen al-Qaeda fighters were killed and "al-Qaeda was disrupted, at least in terms of that cell," says a former national security adviser under former President George W. Bush. "They understand that the US is willing to lean forward, and perhaps they're being deterred or disrupted in their activities." (The military initially claimed it nabbed a decade-old video.)