Source: CNN
22\09\2010
Four Yemeni soldiers were killed and three others wounded Wednesday in ongoing clashes between the country's military and suspected al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen, the military said.
Yemen has launched a wide-scale offensive against al Qaeda in the region.
A government official said Tuesday the offensive in Shabwa province was in response to a militant attack last week on a pipeline carrying liquefied natural gas. The official described the multibillion-dollar pipeline as a "lifeline of the region."
The official asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
A senior U.S. defense official said the U.S. military has been providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance help during the offensive but stressed that Yemeni forces were primarily responsible for its planning and execution.
"The Yemeni government understands the threat within its own borders, to themselves and their people," the defense official said.
The Yemeni government has been fighting a growing al Qaeda element in Yemen called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The militant offshoot group grabbed the attention of the West with the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines trans-Atlantic flight as it landed in Detroit, Michigan, on December 25.
The suspect, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who has pleaded not guilty to six federal terrorism charges, was reportedly trained and armed in Yemen.
Since its inception in January 2009, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks against Saudi, Korean, Yemeni and U.S. targets.
Yemen put on trial four al Qaeda suspects Monday. Yemen's defense ministry website said the suspects -- two Yemenis, a German and an Iraqi -- stand accused of criminal conspiracy and planning to target foreign tourists and interests as well as vital government and military installations in Yemen.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader and Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who is believed to have prepared AbdulMutallab for his operation, remains at large.
A second government official in Yemen said he believes that al-Awlaki is probably in Shabwa, but stressed that the operation was not developed as a means to capture him.
"Ninety-five percent of Yemen and its government believe Awlaki is in Shabwa Province. I hope he is captured, but from what I've heard from officials, there is a lot of conflicting information at this point, and I don't believe he is surrounded right now," the source said.
The Obama administration has stepped up its attention on Yemen, and on Monday, the president's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, affirmed U.S. military support with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the U.S. Embassy said.
A counterterrorism official said the administration recognizes that "not enough is being done in Yemen" to meet the growing challenge posed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
"We need to scale up efforts to disrupt the group," said the official, who spoke about sensitive issues on the condition of anonymity.
The official said that conditions in Yemen have allowed al Qaeda to regroup there and that all options to fight the Arabian Peninsula group are under review at the White House.
The Obama administration is considering adding armed CIA drones to help fight the increasing threat of al Qaeda in Yemen, a U.S. official said last month.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Feature: Al-Qaida attacks, separatist protests undermine tourism in Yemen
Source: Xinhua
22\09\2010
Tourism in Yemen has dramatically declined, especially in southern troubled provinces, where government troops engaged in deadly clashes with growing armed separatist groups since 2007 and separately fighting the resurgent al-Qaida wing which escalated its attacks recently, officials told Xinhua.
The violent clashes and protests rallies in the south deterred about a half million of local and foreign tourists from visiting the country's most attractive port city Aden during the week-long holiday on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr that marked the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, according to official statistics issued by the Yemeni Ministry of Tourism.
Yemen has been facing growing trouble in the south since 2007. The separatist Southern Movement demands to secede southern Yemen from the north over complaining of discrimination against the south, home for most of the country's oil installations.
Since late last year, some armed separatist groups have sporadically targeted local tourists traveling from northern provinces, looting their vehicles and shooting dead the ones who tried o resist.
Deputy director of the provincial Tourism Office in Aden, Jaafar Abu Bakr, said around 87,000 local tourists were registered in Aden during the week-long Eid al-Fitr this year, compared to 600,000 tourists in the same holiday of 2009.
Aidroos Obeid, owner and manager of Mualla Hotel in Aden, said that tourism business "deteriorated because of the activities of the armed, separatist protests and the unstable security situation in Yemen in general," adding that tourists, especially the local tourists were "reluctant" to visit Aden because of the risks of being intercepted by separatist gunmen in the highway linking southern troubled provinces of al-Dhalee and Lahj, the key strongholds of the separatist groups.
"Income of the hotel now is not enough to pay a monthly bill of the electricity service," he said.
Moreover, local officials and observers also attributed the decline in the number of tourists to the recent series of al-Qaida attacks that hit the south and southeast parts of the country since the beginning of this year.
"Tourism is a sensitive industry that easily affected by negative events that caused fear among tourists," said Yemen's deputy tourism minister Abduljabar Saeed.
He said that "the volatile security and political situations in Yemen have been warned by Western countries, which caused the number of foreign tourists decreasing dramatically, especially after foreign tourism companies lifted the travel insurance recently."
The deputy minister also pointed out that the recession in tourism "caused the closure of some tourist facilities," and " laying off several hundred workers."
"Violence, trouble that the country faces from battling al- Qaida regional wing, southern separatist groups in the south as well as Shiite rebellion in the north are key factors that may lead the suspension of the investment and development process in the country," the minister added.
Marseille Gerlache, a German tourist visited Yemen late last year, said "Yemen is a beautiful, wonderful country, but it needs more efforts to reform its security and diplomatic system."
"In Germany, for example, the German Foreign Ministry fostered special tourist sections in its embassies abroad for promoting the tourism in Germany although it already is a well-known country at the international level, " she said.
22\09\2010
Tourism in Yemen has dramatically declined, especially in southern troubled provinces, where government troops engaged in deadly clashes with growing armed separatist groups since 2007 and separately fighting the resurgent al-Qaida wing which escalated its attacks recently, officials told Xinhua.
The violent clashes and protests rallies in the south deterred about a half million of local and foreign tourists from visiting the country's most attractive port city Aden during the week-long holiday on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr that marked the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, according to official statistics issued by the Yemeni Ministry of Tourism.
Yemen has been facing growing trouble in the south since 2007. The separatist Southern Movement demands to secede southern Yemen from the north over complaining of discrimination against the south, home for most of the country's oil installations.
Since late last year, some armed separatist groups have sporadically targeted local tourists traveling from northern provinces, looting their vehicles and shooting dead the ones who tried o resist.
Deputy director of the provincial Tourism Office in Aden, Jaafar Abu Bakr, said around 87,000 local tourists were registered in Aden during the week-long Eid al-Fitr this year, compared to 600,000 tourists in the same holiday of 2009.
Aidroos Obeid, owner and manager of Mualla Hotel in Aden, said that tourism business "deteriorated because of the activities of the armed, separatist protests and the unstable security situation in Yemen in general," adding that tourists, especially the local tourists were "reluctant" to visit Aden because of the risks of being intercepted by separatist gunmen in the highway linking southern troubled provinces of al-Dhalee and Lahj, the key strongholds of the separatist groups.
"Income of the hotel now is not enough to pay a monthly bill of the electricity service," he said.
Moreover, local officials and observers also attributed the decline in the number of tourists to the recent series of al-Qaida attacks that hit the south and southeast parts of the country since the beginning of this year.
"Tourism is a sensitive industry that easily affected by negative events that caused fear among tourists," said Yemen's deputy tourism minister Abduljabar Saeed.
He said that "the volatile security and political situations in Yemen have been warned by Western countries, which caused the number of foreign tourists decreasing dramatically, especially after foreign tourism companies lifted the travel insurance recently."
The deputy minister also pointed out that the recession in tourism "caused the closure of some tourist facilities," and " laying off several hundred workers."
"Violence, trouble that the country faces from battling al- Qaida regional wing, southern separatist groups in the south as well as Shiite rebellion in the north are key factors that may lead the suspension of the investment and development process in the country," the minister added.
Marseille Gerlache, a German tourist visited Yemen late last year, said "Yemen is a beautiful, wonderful country, but it needs more efforts to reform its security and diplomatic system."
"In Germany, for example, the German Foreign Ministry fostered special tourist sections in its embassies abroad for promoting the tourism in Germany although it already is a well-known country at the international level, " she said.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Yemen Military Attacks Town It Says Is Militant Hide-Out
Source: New York Times, By ROBERT F. WORTH
22/09/2010
DAMASCUS, Syria — Yemeni troops and counterterrorism teams have laid siege to a town in southern Yemen where several dozen Qaeda militants were said to be holed up, in an apparent escalation of the Yemeni government’s campaign against the group, witnesses and officials said.
Thousands of civilians have fled the town of Hawta in recent days, after the government warned them to stay clear of the fighting, witnesses and relief officials said. Local officials said the military was intermittently shelling the town with tanks and artillery and firing on the jihadists from attack helicopters on Monday and Tuesday.
The battle in Hawta follows a recent rise in deadly attacks by Al Qaeda’s regional branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen. The militant group drew international attention last Dec. 25 when it claimed responsibility for training a Nigerian who tried to set off a bomb aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner.
The group was relatively inactive for some time afterward, but in recent months a series of brazen raids on checkpoints and security outposts have left at least 50 police officers and soldiers dead, mostly in southern Yemen.
This month, Al Qaeda’s regional branch issued a “death list” of 55 police officials it threatened to kill, and late on Monday it claimed credit for the August kidnapping of a senior intelligence official in northern Yemen and gave the government 48 hours to release two imprisoned Qaeda members or face unspecified consequences.
The fighting comes as the Obama administration’s top counterterrorism official, John Brennan, is in the Yemeni capital, Sana, to talk to President Ali Abdullah Saleh about American military and economic support. In the past, United States officials have expressed concern that the Yemeni government was not taking the Qaeda threat seriously enough, though it has worked more closely in the past year with the American military on counterterrorism efforts, including several American airstrikes.
Later this week the Friends of Yemen, a group of Western and Arab governments formed this year to help shore up Yemen’s stability, is scheduled to meet in New York. Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has struggled with an intermittent armed rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south, and is increasingly dependent on foreign assistance.
Hawta, in southern Yemen’s mountainous Shabwa Province, is at the heart of the remote area east and south of the capital where Al Qaeda’s regional arm has sought sanctuary. It is also just to the north of a major new liquid natural gas pipeline — a crucial resource in a country that is rapidly running out of oil and water — and Yemeni officials have voiced concern about the possibility that jihadists could rupture the line.
Few details were available about the fighting in Hawta, which began on Monday. Three of the militants had been killed and four had been wounded as of early Tuesday, said Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi, the governor of Shabwa. It was not clear whether any of the jihadists in the town were among the leaders of Al Qaeda’s regional branch, which is thought to number a few hundred members.
Yemen’s Interior Ministry said on its Web site that the Qaeda fighters had prevented a number of villagers from leaving and were using them as human shields. One local tribal leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, said the militants had refused all efforts by local tribesmen to persuade them to leave the town peacefully.
Hawta is the hometown of Abdullah al-Mehdar, a Qaeda member who was killed earlier this year, and it has been known for some time as a sanctuary for the group.
Al Qaeda’s regional branch has taken advantage in recent months of the rising lawlessness in southern Yemen, where a secessionist movement has gathered force over the past year. North and South Yemen, previously separate nations, united in 1990 but fought a brief civil war four years later, and many southerners claim the north has mistreated them and starved them economically ever since.
Most leaders of the Southern Movement, as it is known, espouse nonviolence and condemn terrorism. But a rising hatred of the government throughout the south has fostered violent confrontations with the police and a chaotic environment where Al Qaeda appears to be flourishing.
Yemen also appears to be taking stronger courtroom measures against jihadists and people suspected of being their supporters. The Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Hider Shaea, who gained prominence after interviewing Qaeda leaders last year, was charged on Sunday with assisting the group, helping it recruit members and acting as its spokesman, Yemeni officials said.
Mr. Shaea has written extensively for aljazeera.net and has been widely quoted in the Western press; he had been planning to participate in a conference on Yemen in Washington earlier this year, but was unable to attend. He is the only journalist known to have interviewed Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who is believed to have been in contact both with the gunman in the Fort Hood massacre, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and the Nigerian in the airline plot last December, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Mr. Awlaki is now hiding in Shabwa, and capturing or killing him has become a high priority for the American military.
Mr. Shaea’s lawyer, Abdulrahman Barman, said Tuesday that he had seen no evidence to substantiate the charges, and that Mr. Shaea had bruises on his body, apparently the result of police beatings after he was arrested last month. Kamal Sharaf, a cartoonist, was also arrested with Mr. Shaea, though the charges against him were not clear.
Four other men were charged in Sana on Monday with plotting terrorist attacks, including a Yemeni-German teenager, Rami Hans Harman.
Prosecutors said the men trained alongside a suicide bomber who tried earlier this year to assassinate Britain’s ambassador to Yemen, Timothy Torlot. No one was killed in that attack except the bomber.
Qaeda Unit Says It Kidnapped 7
PARIS — A regional branch of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility on Tuesday for kidnapping seven foreign workers in Niger last Thursday, including five French citizens.
They were working for French companies, including the nuclear group Areva, which mines uranium in the Arlit region of Niger.
A spokesman for the militant group, in an audio statement on Al Jazeera, said that it would set demands for the release of the workers to the French government and warned France against taking military action.
French forces are trying to track down the kidnappers with sensor-equipped aircraft.
Muhammad al-Ahmadi and Nasser Arrabyee contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen.
22/09/2010
DAMASCUS, Syria — Yemeni troops and counterterrorism teams have laid siege to a town in southern Yemen where several dozen Qaeda militants were said to be holed up, in an apparent escalation of the Yemeni government’s campaign against the group, witnesses and officials said.
Thousands of civilians have fled the town of Hawta in recent days, after the government warned them to stay clear of the fighting, witnesses and relief officials said. Local officials said the military was intermittently shelling the town with tanks and artillery and firing on the jihadists from attack helicopters on Monday and Tuesday.
The battle in Hawta follows a recent rise in deadly attacks by Al Qaeda’s regional branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen. The militant group drew international attention last Dec. 25 when it claimed responsibility for training a Nigerian who tried to set off a bomb aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner.
The group was relatively inactive for some time afterward, but in recent months a series of brazen raids on checkpoints and security outposts have left at least 50 police officers and soldiers dead, mostly in southern Yemen.
This month, Al Qaeda’s regional branch issued a “death list” of 55 police officials it threatened to kill, and late on Monday it claimed credit for the August kidnapping of a senior intelligence official in northern Yemen and gave the government 48 hours to release two imprisoned Qaeda members or face unspecified consequences.
The fighting comes as the Obama administration’s top counterterrorism official, John Brennan, is in the Yemeni capital, Sana, to talk to President Ali Abdullah Saleh about American military and economic support. In the past, United States officials have expressed concern that the Yemeni government was not taking the Qaeda threat seriously enough, though it has worked more closely in the past year with the American military on counterterrorism efforts, including several American airstrikes.
Later this week the Friends of Yemen, a group of Western and Arab governments formed this year to help shore up Yemen’s stability, is scheduled to meet in New York. Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has struggled with an intermittent armed rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south, and is increasingly dependent on foreign assistance.
Hawta, in southern Yemen’s mountainous Shabwa Province, is at the heart of the remote area east and south of the capital where Al Qaeda’s regional arm has sought sanctuary. It is also just to the north of a major new liquid natural gas pipeline — a crucial resource in a country that is rapidly running out of oil and water — and Yemeni officials have voiced concern about the possibility that jihadists could rupture the line.
Few details were available about the fighting in Hawta, which began on Monday. Three of the militants had been killed and four had been wounded as of early Tuesday, said Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi, the governor of Shabwa. It was not clear whether any of the jihadists in the town were among the leaders of Al Qaeda’s regional branch, which is thought to number a few hundred members.
Yemen’s Interior Ministry said on its Web site that the Qaeda fighters had prevented a number of villagers from leaving and were using them as human shields. One local tribal leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, said the militants had refused all efforts by local tribesmen to persuade them to leave the town peacefully.
Hawta is the hometown of Abdullah al-Mehdar, a Qaeda member who was killed earlier this year, and it has been known for some time as a sanctuary for the group.
Al Qaeda’s regional branch has taken advantage in recent months of the rising lawlessness in southern Yemen, where a secessionist movement has gathered force over the past year. North and South Yemen, previously separate nations, united in 1990 but fought a brief civil war four years later, and many southerners claim the north has mistreated them and starved them economically ever since.
Most leaders of the Southern Movement, as it is known, espouse nonviolence and condemn terrorism. But a rising hatred of the government throughout the south has fostered violent confrontations with the police and a chaotic environment where Al Qaeda appears to be flourishing.
Yemen also appears to be taking stronger courtroom measures against jihadists and people suspected of being their supporters. The Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Hider Shaea, who gained prominence after interviewing Qaeda leaders last year, was charged on Sunday with assisting the group, helping it recruit members and acting as its spokesman, Yemeni officials said.
Mr. Shaea has written extensively for aljazeera.net and has been widely quoted in the Western press; he had been planning to participate in a conference on Yemen in Washington earlier this year, but was unable to attend. He is the only journalist known to have interviewed Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who is believed to have been in contact both with the gunman in the Fort Hood massacre, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and the Nigerian in the airline plot last December, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Mr. Awlaki is now hiding in Shabwa, and capturing or killing him has become a high priority for the American military.
Mr. Shaea’s lawyer, Abdulrahman Barman, said Tuesday that he had seen no evidence to substantiate the charges, and that Mr. Shaea had bruises on his body, apparently the result of police beatings after he was arrested last month. Kamal Sharaf, a cartoonist, was also arrested with Mr. Shaea, though the charges against him were not clear.
Four other men were charged in Sana on Monday with plotting terrorist attacks, including a Yemeni-German teenager, Rami Hans Harman.
Prosecutors said the men trained alongside a suicide bomber who tried earlier this year to assassinate Britain’s ambassador to Yemen, Timothy Torlot. No one was killed in that attack except the bomber.
Qaeda Unit Says It Kidnapped 7
PARIS — A regional branch of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility on Tuesday for kidnapping seven foreign workers in Niger last Thursday, including five French citizens.
They were working for French companies, including the nuclear group Areva, which mines uranium in the Arlit region of Niger.
A spokesman for the militant group, in an audio statement on Al Jazeera, said that it would set demands for the release of the workers to the French government and warned France against taking military action.
French forces are trying to track down the kidnappers with sensor-equipped aircraft.
Muhammad al-Ahmadi and Nasser Arrabyee contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen.
Yemeni officials deny reports cleric surrounded
Source: AP, By AHMED AL-HAJ 22/09/2010
SAN'A, Yemen — The Yemeni army destroyed five homes suspected of hiding al-Qaida militants Tuesday as a siege of a southern village entered its second day, but officials denied reports that U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was among those surrounded.
Government forces have moved into the village of Hawta with tanks and armored vehicles and thousands of people have fled the area to escape the fighting, which officials say is targeting a 120-man militant cell.
Troops also fired on vehicles of residents fleeing the village and another nearby trouble spot, the city of Lawder, killing two civilians and wounding three others, according local government and medical officials.
Security officials said the homes that were destroyed were empty. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media.
The governor of Shabwa province Ali al-Hamadi said an al-Qaida sniper wounded a soldier and a civilian on Tuesday as security forces advanced into the village of al-Bareeqa, a few miles (kilometers) away from Hawta.
An unofficial website run by government opponents, Alganob.net, reported that al-Awlaki was among those who been surrounded.
But the chief municipal official, Atiq Baouda, and the security officials denied that he was in the area under siege. The Yemeni army refused to comment on the operation.
Al-Awlaki played a key part in the failed terrorist Christmas Day attempt to take down a Detroit-bound passenger jet.
Yemen says it is waging an aggressive U.S.-backed campaign to uproot the terror network's local offshoot, which Washington considers a major threat.
Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, said the operation was in response to a recent attempted attack on a liquefied natural gas pipeline.
He said the military had surrounded the area and was cutting off access in and out of the town.
"Most likely they'll enter the area in the next 24 hours," Albasha said.
He said the operation has nothing to do with al-Awlaki.
"His hometown is hundreds of miles away," Albasha said.
Monday's start of the operation coincided with a visit to Yemen by President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, for talks with President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other senior officials.
The White House said Tuesday that Brennan's trip had nothing to do with increased military actions there.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Yemeni government has been actively involved in the struggle against extremist groups, and he believed Brennan, "extended the continued message of our support for their efforts to do so."
Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Julie Pace contributed to this report from Washington.
SAN'A, Yemen — The Yemeni army destroyed five homes suspected of hiding al-Qaida militants Tuesday as a siege of a southern village entered its second day, but officials denied reports that U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was among those surrounded.
Government forces have moved into the village of Hawta with tanks and armored vehicles and thousands of people have fled the area to escape the fighting, which officials say is targeting a 120-man militant cell.
Troops also fired on vehicles of residents fleeing the village and another nearby trouble spot, the city of Lawder, killing two civilians and wounding three others, according local government and medical officials.
Security officials said the homes that were destroyed were empty. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media.
The governor of Shabwa province Ali al-Hamadi said an al-Qaida sniper wounded a soldier and a civilian on Tuesday as security forces advanced into the village of al-Bareeqa, a few miles (kilometers) away from Hawta.
An unofficial website run by government opponents, Alganob.net, reported that al-Awlaki was among those who been surrounded.
But the chief municipal official, Atiq Baouda, and the security officials denied that he was in the area under siege. The Yemeni army refused to comment on the operation.
Al-Awlaki played a key part in the failed terrorist Christmas Day attempt to take down a Detroit-bound passenger jet.
Yemen says it is waging an aggressive U.S.-backed campaign to uproot the terror network's local offshoot, which Washington considers a major threat.
Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, said the operation was in response to a recent attempted attack on a liquefied natural gas pipeline.
He said the military had surrounded the area and was cutting off access in and out of the town.
"Most likely they'll enter the area in the next 24 hours," Albasha said.
He said the operation has nothing to do with al-Awlaki.
"His hometown is hundreds of miles away," Albasha said.
Monday's start of the operation coincided with a visit to Yemen by President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, for talks with President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other senior officials.
The White House said Tuesday that Brennan's trip had nothing to do with increased military actions there.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Yemeni government has been actively involved in the struggle against extremist groups, and he believed Brennan, "extended the continued message of our support for their efforts to do so."
Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Julie Pace contributed to this report from Washington.
Cornered Al Qaeda fighters refuse mediation and threaten to kill tribal chief if he talks with them
By Nasser Arrabyee/21/09/2010
A Yemeni tribal sheikh said Tuesday that Al Qaeda fighters who are being cornered in a mountainous area in south Yemen threatened to kill him if he did not stop trying to negotiate with them.
“ I tried to contact with them for negotiations, but they told me to stay away from them, and they said they would kill me to closer to Allah (God) if I do not stop trying to talk to them,” Sheikh Hassan Ba Hanhan of Al Huta said.
The Yemeni government troops have been blockading about 50 Al Qaeda fighters including Saudis and top leaders in the village of Al Huta in Mayfa’a district of the southern province of Shabwa since last Saturday.
At least four Al Qaeda fighters and four soldiers were killed and several others injured according to official and medical sources on Tuesday. This group being corned is accused of trying to bomb 320km long pipe line extending from Mareb province Shabwa, the country’s 5 billion US $ gas project.
Using all kinds of weapons including tanks and fighter jets and helicopters, the army and American- trained special forces is preparing for a big battle to clean Shabwa from the Al Qaeda militants.
The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, the most wanted for CIA, alive or dead, is believed to be fighting with this group in Al Huta which is about 100 Km from his village Al Awalik.
Earlier this year the prominent Al Qaeda leader in the area of Al Huta , Abdullah Al Mehdar was killed after his group clashed with security forces.
The senior military officials who are leading the battle, want to avoid casualties from among the civilians. Over the last three days they kept calling, using loudspeakers, population to get out from the village.
In the middle of last August, more than 33 people including 15 Al Qaeda fighters and 11 soldiers were killed after a four-day battle in the town of Lawdar, one of the stronghold of Al Qaeda and separatists.
Faraj Baras,from the Red Crescent in Mayfa’a estimated those who already got out until Tuesday at 12,000 people out of the 18,000 population. Baras said that the displaced people need food and shelter assistance.
Local sources said Tuesday that Al Qaeda militants tried to prevent the population from getting from their village to use them as human shields.
On his part, Yaslem Bajanoob, chairman of the local council of Mayfa’a said that some people are hesitant to leave their houses and properties because they are afraid of plundering and looting acts if the army storm the village.
Bajanoob said that the tribesmen held meetings today Tuesday and warned from any looting and plundering of their houses and properties.
Cornered Al Qaeda fighters threaten to kill tribal chief if he talks with them
By Nasser Arrabyee/21/09/2010
A Yemeni tribal sheikh said Tuesday that Al Qaeda fighters who are being cornered in a mountainous area in south Yemen threatened to kill him if he did not stop trying to negotiate with them.
“ I tried to contact with them for negotiations, but they told me to stay away from them, and they said they would kill me to closer to Allah (God) if I do not stop trying to talk to them,” Sheikh Hassan Ba Hanhan of Al Huta said.
The Yemeni government troops have been blockading about 50 Al Qaeda fighters including Saudis and top leaders in the village of Al Huta in Mayfa’a district of the southern province of Shabwa since last Saturday.
At least four Al Qaeda fighters and four soldiers were killed and several others injured according to official and medical sources on Tuesday. This group being corned is accused of trying to bomb 320km long pipe line extending from Mareb province Shabwa, the country’s 5 billion US $ gas project.
Using all kinds of weapons including tanks and fighter jets and helicopters, the army and American- trained special forces is preparing for a big battle to clean Shabwa from the Al Qaeda militants.
The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, the most wanted for CIA, alive or dead, is believed to be fighting with this group in Al Huta which is about 100 Km from his village Al Awalik.
Earlier this year the prominent Al Qaeda leader in the area of Al Huta , Abdullah Al Mehdar was killed after his group clashed with security forces.
The senior military officials who are leading the battle, want to avoid casualties from among the civilians. Over the last three days they kept calling, using loudspeakers, population to get out from the village.
Faraj Baras,from the Red Crescent in Mayfa’a estimated those who already got out until Tuesday at 12,000 people out of the 18,000 population.
On his part, Yaslem Bajanoob, chairman of the local council of Mayfa’a said that some people are hesitant to leave their houses and properties because they are afraid of plundering and looting acts if the army storm the village.
Bajanoob said that the tribesmen held meetings today Tuesday and warned from any looting and plundering of their houses and properties.
A Yemeni tribal sheikh said Tuesday that Al Qaeda fighters who are being cornered in a mountainous area in south Yemen threatened to kill him if he did not stop trying to negotiate with them.
“ I tried to contact with them for negotiations, but they told me to stay away from them, and they said they would kill me to closer to Allah (God) if I do not stop trying to talk to them,” Sheikh Hassan Ba Hanhan of Al Huta said.
The Yemeni government troops have been blockading about 50 Al Qaeda fighters including Saudis and top leaders in the village of Al Huta in Mayfa’a district of the southern province of Shabwa since last Saturday.
At least four Al Qaeda fighters and four soldiers were killed and several others injured according to official and medical sources on Tuesday. This group being corned is accused of trying to bomb 320km long pipe line extending from Mareb province Shabwa, the country’s 5 billion US $ gas project.
Using all kinds of weapons including tanks and fighter jets and helicopters, the army and American- trained special forces is preparing for a big battle to clean Shabwa from the Al Qaeda militants.
The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, the most wanted for CIA, alive or dead, is believed to be fighting with this group in Al Huta which is about 100 Km from his village Al Awalik.
Earlier this year the prominent Al Qaeda leader in the area of Al Huta , Abdullah Al Mehdar was killed after his group clashed with security forces.
The senior military officials who are leading the battle, want to avoid casualties from among the civilians. Over the last three days they kept calling, using loudspeakers, population to get out from the village.
Faraj Baras,from the Red Crescent in Mayfa’a estimated those who already got out until Tuesday at 12,000 people out of the 18,000 population.
On his part, Yaslem Bajanoob, chairman of the local council of Mayfa’a said that some people are hesitant to leave their houses and properties because they are afraid of plundering and looting acts if the army storm the village.
Bajanoob said that the tribesmen held meetings today Tuesday and warned from any looting and plundering of their houses and properties.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Yemen, UNDP discuss agricultural cooperation
Source: Yemen's official news agency, 21/09/2010
Sana'a- Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Mansour al-Hawshabi met on Monday with Director of Economic Diversification Support Program (EDSP) ,financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).Talks in the meeting dealt with aspects of cooperation between the two sides, especially with regard to the development of agricultural activities to enhance the agricultural sector's role in achieving food security.
The two sides affirmed the importance of the program and its contributions to the agricultural development.They reviewed the program's vision on supporting Yemen's efforts in the implementation of the goals of the five-year plan, in particularly those ones relating to providing water for achieving food security.
The EDSP's director, Heba Ahmed, confirmed the UNDP's keenness to know the vision and plans of the Ministry of Agriculture in order to help it through linking them with the goals of the five-year plan.She indicated that the program seeks to support Yemen's plans and programs in the various sectors of agriculture, fisheries, trad, industry, tourism and planning.
For his part, al-Hawshabi commended the UNDP's role in promoting Yemen's efforts in achieving the food security and the goals of the five-year plan.
He pointed out that the agricultural sector is the base of the sustainable development, affirming that the ministry's plans and programs are seeking during the coming period to fill up the food gap in Yemen through improving the agricultural production.
In a statement to Saba, Director of the project to support economic diversification in the agriculture sector, Sadiq al-Nabhani said that the project, financed with a grant of USD 2.9 million from the UNDP with, focuses on important issues in Yemen's strategic vision for 2025, which is represented in the economic diversity, alleviating poverty and creating jobs.
He indicated that the economic diversification program that started at the beginning of this year and lasts for five years includes the implementation of various agricultural activities.BA
Sana'a- Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Mansour al-Hawshabi met on Monday with Director of Economic Diversification Support Program (EDSP) ,financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).Talks in the meeting dealt with aspects of cooperation between the two sides, especially with regard to the development of agricultural activities to enhance the agricultural sector's role in achieving food security.
The two sides affirmed the importance of the program and its contributions to the agricultural development.They reviewed the program's vision on supporting Yemen's efforts in the implementation of the goals of the five-year plan, in particularly those ones relating to providing water for achieving food security.
The EDSP's director, Heba Ahmed, confirmed the UNDP's keenness to know the vision and plans of the Ministry of Agriculture in order to help it through linking them with the goals of the five-year plan.She indicated that the program seeks to support Yemen's plans and programs in the various sectors of agriculture, fisheries, trad, industry, tourism and planning.
For his part, al-Hawshabi commended the UNDP's role in promoting Yemen's efforts in achieving the food security and the goals of the five-year plan.
He pointed out that the agricultural sector is the base of the sustainable development, affirming that the ministry's plans and programs are seeking during the coming period to fill up the food gap in Yemen through improving the agricultural production.
In a statement to Saba, Director of the project to support economic diversification in the agriculture sector, Sadiq al-Nabhani said that the project, financed with a grant of USD 2.9 million from the UNDP with, focuses on important issues in Yemen's strategic vision for 2025, which is represented in the economic diversity, alleviating poverty and creating jobs.
He indicated that the economic diversification program that started at the beginning of this year and lasts for five years includes the implementation of various agricultural activities.BA
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