Al Qaeda tries to retaliate in Sanaa, Islamists defends their spiritual leader, Zandani

By Nasser Arrabyee,01/04/2012

Two Al Qaeda cells are preparing to implement terrorist operations against senior military and security officials and government and western interests  in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, security sources expected on Sunday.

Al Qaeda wants to retaliate to the airstrikes recently  implemented by American and Yemenis planes   especially the  most recent one which killed four senior leaders including an  exclusives expert last Friday in Azzan, Shabwah province.

Immediately after this airstrike, ay least four terrorist operations were implemented by Al Qaeda in Shabwah , Lahj, Sayoun and Mukalla, in which more than 37 soldiers were killed in two days.

While terrorist attacks increased in Yemen, the US Ambassodor in Sanaa Gerald Feiestein repeatedly accused the  spiritual leader of the largest Islamist party,  extremist cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani of supporting terrorism.

However, Al Zandani's party, Islah, defended his leader in an officials statement on Sunday April 1st, 2012,  saying the accusations were based on  wrong information given to US administration by the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. 

Last week, Ambassodor Feierstein said in press statements  that US and international community are concerned from Al Zandani and his followers and his supporters. 

Al Zandani's party, Islah, leads the coalition which rules Yemen now after Saleh is gone.

The coalition, locally known as Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs), includes four other main parties , Socialists and Nasserites ( Arab-pan nationalists), two small Islamic Shiite parties.

Some leaders of Islah party and majority of it's members always say that Al Qaeda is not existing at all in Yemen and it is only "President" Saleh who makes it to get money from America and the west.

 This position has not changed after Saleh  is gone from the power. Some leaders and members of Islah say clearly in all meetings and arguments:  there are  people who  claim to be Al Qaeda but they are  in fact only working with Ali Abdullah Saleh, and there are  people who are doing Jihad which is the  " essence of Islam", and those must be supported by every Muslim.

 Those are not Al Qaeda but they are  Mujahideen. Those people, who call Al Qaeda Mujahideen,started to demand  the new President Abdul Rabu Mansour Hadi to stop any cooperation with the Americans that would violate the "Yemeni sovereignty", in a very obvious reference to the cooperation between Yemen and US to fight terrorism.

Al Qaeda kills seven more soldiers in eastern Yemen, sympathetic tribesmen try to control Sana’a airport.

A total of seven security soldiers were killed by Al Qaeda fighters in the eastern province of Hudhrmout, said military sources early Sunday.

At the dawn of Sunday a group of terrorists infiltrated to the check point of Akabat Jujah which is located between Al Kuten and Shebam, in Sayoun, and they killed all the seven soldiers who were in the check point, the military sources said. 

This terrorist attack came only day after 28 troops were killed in a military position between Al Qaeda controlled town of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan and the province of Lahj.
The deputy director of the intelligence in Lahj, Aboud Awadh Fadhl, was injured on Saturday with a bullet in his right leg when two terrorists riding a motor cycle shot him while walking close to his office. 

And in Mukalla, the capital of the eastern province of Hudhrmout, senior security official survived an assassination attempt when his car exploded minutes before he came to drive on Saturday. Explosives were planted in the car by terrorists.

Meanwhile, one soldier at least was injured in Arhab area, about 35 km north of the international airport of Sana’a, where tribesmen loyal to the Islamists party, Islah, and loyal to Al Qaeda and the defected general Ali Muhsen, have been trying to control over military camps under the leadership of the son of the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. 

The local sources from Arhab said that the militants use RPG and artillery in their attacks on three camps that have been positioning in the area of Arhab since early 1980s as a strategic place to protect the capital Sana’a in general and the airport in particular. 

Al Qaeda has been very active in Arhab and the neighboring areas since 2007. The extremist cleric, Abdul Majid Al Zandani, accused by US and UN of supporting global terrorism, is originally from Arhab, and he ‘as been hiding up there since March last year.