Al Qaeda wants to rule south Yemen for 15 years, official says

By Nasser Arrabyee,17/10/2012

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said it wanted to rule the south of Yemen for only 15 years after the socialists and communists ruled for 25 years, said a Yemeni military official.

The Minister of  Defense Mohammed Nasser Ahmed said he had received a letter from AQAP saying this. He was talking to military and security officials in presence of the governor of Aden, Waheed Ali Rashid,  on Tuesday in the southern city of Aden.

The minister also said he had received a number of phone calls from Al Qaeda operatives, and the last one was saying " You are most welcome to Aden".

Mohammed Aidarous Al Jafri, leader of the anti-Al Qaeda popular committees , in Lawdar, was killed when his car turned over early morning Wednesday when he was returning from Aden where he met the minister of defense, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed. 

The car of Al Jafri turned over in the high way of Shuqrah, Lawdar Aden. One of his companion named Ahmed Hassan Zaran was killed also and and seven others were injured. 

However,  a source close to Al Qaeda said that Mohammed Aidarous was killed by Al Qaeda conspiracy and not by car accident. The source said Al Qaeda was not defeated but changed its tactics.

"Al Qaeda killed the top commander of the southern region, and leaders of popular committees, and a number of intelligence officers after it withdrew from Abyan, and now I wonder how some people say Al Qaeda was defeated," said the sources. 

Meanwhile, a group of 12 Al Qaeda operatives were arrested when security forces stormed a house nearby the main office of Yemeni intelligence in Sanaa , said security sources late Tuesday. 

Some of those arrested were Syrians the sources said. The group was planning to attack the headquarters of the intelligence with the aim of releasing prisoners. 

In a separate incident, at least four people were killed and five others injured when a suicide bomber drove his car to a check point of anti-Al Qaeda tribesmen  known as popular committees in the southern town of Mudyah.

Local sources said that gunmen from Al Qaeda first attacked the check point of Al Kafalah, east of Mudyah, and when tribesmen assembled to retaliate,  a car bomb came and exploded killing and injuring at least 10 people. The sources mentioned the names of four killed and five injured. 

Earlier on Tuesday, an Iraqi senior military officer was killed in the middle of the Yemeni capital Sanaa by two masked gunmen riding a motorcycle.

The ministry of defense said in its website late Tuesday  that the slain Khaled Hatem AlHashimi was not working with the ministry   as media reports said. 

"The former officer of the Iraqi army was martyred in a terrorist and treacherous act," said the statement. The ministry did not accuse anyone or group, but said the investigations are still going on.  The slain Al Hashimi was hosted by Yemen after Saddam regime collapsed in 2003, the ministry said. 

However, eyewitnesses told me that Al Hashimi was wearing a Yemeni military uniform with the rank of brigade  when he was killed.  Military sources also said that he was working with the defected general Ali Muhsen before he was sent to the ministry of defense to work there as an expert.