Soldiers demanding salaries surround house of military official in Sanaa, and army and tribesmen tighten the noose on Al Qaeda strongholds

By Nasser Arrabyee,10/06/2012

Hundreds of soldiers have beenl surrounding since morning the house of a military official in charge of salaries at the ministry of defense, said  sources in the besieged houses late  Sunday.

The house is located at Bait Mayed, in  southern part of capital Sanaa, and it belongs to general Abdullah Al Kabodi, the head of financial department at the ministry of defense. 

The soldiers around the house, many of them armed, demand their salaries, and accuse Al Kabodi of not wanting to approve their monthly payments.
Those soldiers are among about 20,000 soldiers who were recruited by  general Ali Muhsen after he defected from Saleh's army. The ministry of defense has not approved their payments until today. 

 The majority of the 20,000 were recruited from Al Eman  religious university owned and run by Shiekh Abdul Majid Al Zandani, who is accused by US and UN, of supporting local and global terrorism. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of armed tribesmen from the tribe of Abdullah Al Kabodi, overflowed to the area around the house in Bait Mayed  to defend their man, who is also their tribal leader. 

They say if their man made any mistake of any kind, he should be summoned by the prosecutor general not taken by force by orders from military and political officials who want only to settle accounts with him.

" We would defend ourselves and defend our tribal leader Abduallah Al Kabodi by all possible means, and we welcome any thing from the court or prosecution office," said Thu Yazan, one of the armed tribesmen inside the house. 

" If those soldiers are wronged and they demand their salaries, they should go to the house of minister of finance, or the house of the minister of defense, if they do not like courts," he added. 

" The one  who sent them, should reconsider his decision, we are tribesmen, and  we will not let our leader alone," Thu Yazan added. 

This incident coincided with a new attack by RPG, and mortars on the third brigade of the republican guards in Al Nahdeen area around the presidential house in Sanaa.

The attack of today Sunday was not the first, maybe not the last, implemented against the third brigade, one of the most powerful one in the republican guard forces which yis still under the son, Ahmed,  of former Presidnet Ali Abdullah Saleh. A dispute over who leads this brigade, is still unsolved, since a new commander was appointed by Presidnet Hadi last month. 

Military sources accused Al Qaeda of being behind such attacks because of the role of the republican guards in the battles going in Abyan against Al Qaeda. 

This attack came only hours after the minister of defense Mohammed Nasser Ahmed praised the role of the republican guards in the last successive defeats inflicted on Al Qaeda by the army in cooperation with the tribsmen of Abyan, the home province of the Presidnet Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

The coastal twon of Shuqrah, on the Gulf of Aden, is almost surounded from all directions. The republican gaurds and other army units controlled yesterday Al Erkob area, one of the most entrances in the northen outkirt of Shuqrah. 

And today sunday, the army closed Ahwar road , east of Shuqrah, and all  Al Qaeda special roads, subroads, between Shabwah, Abyan and Hudhrmout. 

Top leaders of AQAP, Nasser Al Wahayshi and Kasem Al Raimi  are believed to have escaped by a boat through the sea of the Gulf of Aden, from Shuqrah after siege imposed on the areas around the coastal twin of Shuqrah,  military sources said. 

Brother of president  Hadi, Nasser Mansour Hadi is participating in the battles of Shuqrah, said military sources Sunday. 

For Jaar, where battles still going on at its gate,  a second factory  of car bombs in Jaar was destroyed by air strikes, said military and local sources Sunday.