Al Qaeda top leader kisses and bids final farewell to slain mid-level leader

7 Al Qaeda fighters killed in Zinjubar after the US drone attacks on Mudyah

By Nasser Arrabyee ,02/02/2012

The top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), Nasser Al Wahayshi, alias Abu Basir,was very keen on Wednesday to have the final look at his comrade Abdul Mumen Al Fathani who was killed one day earlier along with a number of fighters in an American air strike in Mudyah of the southern province of Abyan, mourners said on Thursday.

Abu Basir stopped hundreds of mourners of Al Fathani in an area between Azzan of Shabwah and Mudyah of Abyan, for about half an hour to say the final goodbye to his commander, said sources who participated in the funeral.

Abu Basir kissed the face of Al Fathani with tears shedding down his cheeks.
" Congratulations for martyrdom, Abu Kaidah," said Abu Basir to the dead body. 

Abu Kaidah is the alias of Al Fat-hani, and it refers to his grandfather, Abu Kaidah.

Then, the cars of the mourners drove towards Mudyah and Abu Basir drove in another mountainous road with his bodyguards, said the sources in the funeral.

The slain Al Fat-hani was  admitted to  the hospital of Azzan, AAQP- controlled town in Shabwah, early Tuesday January 31, 2012, after he was seriously injured with a shrapnel in his neck in a US drone attack on his two cars nearby Mudyah.
 
Al Fat-hani, who is originally from Mudyah, was the top leader of AQAP in Mudya for years. He was accused of being involved in the terrorist attacks on USS Cole in 2000, and the attack on the French  oil Tanker Lumberge in 2002.

Hundreds of people from Mudyah and Azzan participated in the funeral with tens of Al Qaeda fighters chanting Jihad slogans and threatening to take revenge against the Americans and their agents.

Al Fat-hani was buried in the cemetery of Thawabah, north of Mudyah.

Meanwhile, 7 Al Qaeda operatives were killed Wednesday in the city of Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan.
 Three were killed by snipers in the coasts of Zinjubar. 

And the other four were killed when  a car bomb,  they were still making, exploded on them.

 According to the sources, two of those killed were Pakistani and Afghani. The terrorists were planning to implement a suicide bombing against the government troops which surround the city of Zinjubar since September 10, 2012.