Source: Reuters
06\3\2010
At least ten separatists and three soldiers were injured in clashes in southern Yemen on Saturday, an official said, as President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government steps up a crackdown on southern secessionists.
Escalating violence between troops and separatists in Yemen's southern provinces has left several dead on both sides in recent weeks.
The soldiers were attempting to arrest suspects in the killing of a local intelligence official in the province of Dalea, the government official told Reuters. He said seven separatist leaders were arrested in the operation.
Witnesses and southern media said Yemeni security forces had surrounded Dalea city from all sides at dawn on Saturday and raided a number of houses, sparking clashes with armed groups.
The violence spread to many parts of the city, southern news website Sahwa Net reported.
Residents in Dalea told Reuters loudspeaker warnings had been issued around the city of a curfew that would begin at 6 p.m. (10 a.m. EST) and last until further notice.
North and South Yemen formally united in 1990 but many in the south, where most of impoverished Yemen's oil facilities are located, complain northerners have used unification to seize resources and discriminate against them.
Yemen became a major Western security concern after the Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.
Western allies and neighboring oil exporter Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda is exploiting Yemen's instability to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.
In addition to fighting al Qaeda, impoverished Yemen is also trying to bring an end to a northern Shi'ite insurgency. Last month, the government declared a truce in the long-running conflict that drew in Saudi Arabia when the rebels seized some Saudi territory in November last year.
The kingdom launched a major military offensive against the rebels, and declared victory earlier this year, but Riyadh said at the time that the release of all captured Saudi soldiers would help prove the insurgents were serious about ending the conflict.
On Saturday, Saudi Assistant Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan was quoted by the Saudi state news agency as saying the bodies of the last two missing soldiers had been received.
Yemeni Shi'ite rebels said last month the last two missing Saudi soldiers they were believed to be holding captive were dead.
(Reporting by Mohamed Mukhashaf in Aden and Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Ulf Laessing in Riyadh, Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; editing by Noah Barkin)
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Mediation efforts with separatist leader may stop violent escalation
By Nasser Arrabyee/05/3/2010
Surprise calm has prevailed in the most unstable southern city of Zinjubar, in Abyan province after efforts of mediation with the most controversial separatist leader, Tarek Al Fadhli, local sources Friday.
No demonstrations took place in city on Thursday when at least six people were killed and injured in the demonstrations, which took place in Lahj and Shabwa.
Separation flags, anti-unity slogans and posters, and pictures of separatist leaders, were removed from the city and from the place around the Palace of Al Fadhli where demonstrations usually take place, the sources said.
This surprise change came after the security forces surrounded the Palace of Al Fadhli on suspicion that his followers were behind firing an RPG on an armored vehicle earlier this week inside the city of Zinjubar. The RPG missed the vehicle.
The siege on the Palace was immediately lifted after high-profile security and military officials contacted with Al Fadhli, whose sister is married to most influential military commander Ali Muhsen, cousin of the President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The change in the attitude of Al Fadhli, ex-jihadist in Afghanistan, came also after the trade of weapons and separatist leader, Ali Al Yafe'e was killed in his house in the city earlier this week.
Al Yafe'e, accused also by the government as an Al Qaeda operative, had hung and burned an effigy of the President Ali Abdullah Saleh last Sunday in anti-unity demonstration around the palace of Al Fadhli. Eyewitnesses said at the time, that Al Fadhli, quickly entered his palace when the effigy was being burned.
An unsigned statement was distributed in the city of Zinjubar accusing Al Fadhli of conspiring against the separatists. Al Fadhli fought against the separatists in 1994 with the armed forces of President Saleh who won the war.
A new security director was appointed Wednesday in the city after a visit by the two ministers of defense and interior.
Thursday which was quiet in Zinjubar, three people at least including two soldiers were killed and three others injured in clashes between security forces and armed separatists in Radfan and Shabwa, south of Yemen where secession sentiments are increasing day by day, local and official sources said.
A man was killed and three others injured when armed demonstrations, calling for disunity, fired randomly at the security forces who were removing a separation flag raised earlier by the separatists on the government's offices in Al Habeelin, Radfan, the sources said.
Two soldiers died when a military vehicle capsized because of high speed after armed demonstrators fired at a number of vehicles who came to disperse armed demonstrations in Mayfa'ah, Shabwah province.
Gunmen notably increased over the last two days in angry demonstrations organized almost daily by separatists after one of their leaders who called for armed struggle, was killed in Abyan.
Qasem Abdul Rahman, the deputy governor of Lahj said that the majority of the demonstrators in Radfan on Thursday were armed, and they tried to storm the government offices.
The official said the armed demonstrators raised the separation flag over the local authority offices in Al Habeelin before they clashed with the security men.
He said that the separatists killed more than 20 people and injured more than 70 others since April last year when they started to weapons in their demonstrations.
More 200 cars belonging to the government and to people from the north, were plundered during the same period, he said.
Surprise calm has prevailed in the most unstable southern city of Zinjubar, in Abyan province after efforts of mediation with the most controversial separatist leader, Tarek Al Fadhli, local sources Friday.
No demonstrations took place in city on Thursday when at least six people were killed and injured in the demonstrations, which took place in Lahj and Shabwa.
Separation flags, anti-unity slogans and posters, and pictures of separatist leaders, were removed from the city and from the place around the Palace of Al Fadhli where demonstrations usually take place, the sources said.
This surprise change came after the security forces surrounded the Palace of Al Fadhli on suspicion that his followers were behind firing an RPG on an armored vehicle earlier this week inside the city of Zinjubar. The RPG missed the vehicle.
The siege on the Palace was immediately lifted after high-profile security and military officials contacted with Al Fadhli, whose sister is married to most influential military commander Ali Muhsen, cousin of the President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The change in the attitude of Al Fadhli, ex-jihadist in Afghanistan, came also after the trade of weapons and separatist leader, Ali Al Yafe'e was killed in his house in the city earlier this week.
Al Yafe'e, accused also by the government as an Al Qaeda operative, had hung and burned an effigy of the President Ali Abdullah Saleh last Sunday in anti-unity demonstration around the palace of Al Fadhli. Eyewitnesses said at the time, that Al Fadhli, quickly entered his palace when the effigy was being burned.
An unsigned statement was distributed in the city of Zinjubar accusing Al Fadhli of conspiring against the separatists. Al Fadhli fought against the separatists in 1994 with the armed forces of President Saleh who won the war.
A new security director was appointed Wednesday in the city after a visit by the two ministers of defense and interior.
Thursday which was quiet in Zinjubar, three people at least including two soldiers were killed and three others injured in clashes between security forces and armed separatists in Radfan and Shabwa, south of Yemen where secession sentiments are increasing day by day, local and official sources said.
A man was killed and three others injured when armed demonstrations, calling for disunity, fired randomly at the security forces who were removing a separation flag raised earlier by the separatists on the government's offices in Al Habeelin, Radfan, the sources said.
Two soldiers died when a military vehicle capsized because of high speed after armed demonstrators fired at a number of vehicles who came to disperse armed demonstrations in Mayfa'ah, Shabwah province.
Gunmen notably increased over the last two days in angry demonstrations organized almost daily by separatists after one of their leaders who called for armed struggle, was killed in Abyan.
Qasem Abdul Rahman, the deputy governor of Lahj said that the majority of the demonstrators in Radfan on Thursday were armed, and they tried to storm the government offices.
The official said the armed demonstrators raised the separation flag over the local authority offices in Al Habeelin before they clashed with the security men.
He said that the separatists killed more than 20 people and injured more than 70 others since April last year when they started to weapons in their demonstrations.
More 200 cars belonging to the government and to people from the north, were plundered during the same period, he said.
Three killed and three injured in increasing violence in the south of Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/04/3/2010
Three people at least including two soldiers were killed and three others injured in clashes between security forces and armed separatists in Radfan and Shabwa, south of Yemen where secession sentiments are increasing day by day, local sources said Thursday.
A man was killed and three others injured when armed demonstrations, calling for disunity, fired randomly at the security forces who were removing a separation flag raised earlier by the separatists on the government's offices in Al Habeelin, Radfan, the sources said.
Two soldiers died when a military vehicle capsized because of high speed after armed demonstrators fired at a number of vehicles who came to disperse armed demonstrations in Mayfa'ah, Shabwah province.
Gunmen notably increased over the last two days in angry demonstrations organized almost daily by separatists after one of their leaders who called armed struggle, was killed in Abyan.
Qasem Abdul Rahman, the deputy governor of Lahj said that the majority of the demonstrators in Radfan on Thursday were armed, and they tried to storm government offices.
The official said the armed demonstrators raised the separation flag over the local authority offices in Al Habeelin before they clashed with the security men.
Three people at least including two soldiers were killed and three others injured in clashes between security forces and armed separatists in Radfan and Shabwa, south of Yemen where secession sentiments are increasing day by day, local sources said Thursday.
A man was killed and three others injured when armed demonstrations, calling for disunity, fired randomly at the security forces who were removing a separation flag raised earlier by the separatists on the government's offices in Al Habeelin, Radfan, the sources said.
Two soldiers died when a military vehicle capsized because of high speed after armed demonstrators fired at a number of vehicles who came to disperse armed demonstrations in Mayfa'ah, Shabwah province.
Gunmen notably increased over the last two days in angry demonstrations organized almost daily by separatists after one of their leaders who called armed struggle, was killed in Abyan.
Qasem Abdul Rahman, the deputy governor of Lahj said that the majority of the demonstrators in Radfan on Thursday were armed, and they tried to storm government offices.
The official said the armed demonstrators raised the separation flag over the local authority offices in Al Habeelin before they clashed with the security men.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
11 Al Qaeda suspects arrested, two killed
By Nasser Arrabyee/04/03/2010
A man was killed and a soldier injured in shoot-out between Al Qaeda suspects and Yemeni security forces who raided a hideout in the Yemeni capital Sana'a arresting a total of 11 Al Qaeda suspects, an official statment said Thursday.
The operation was in Sawad Hanash in Sana'a where the eleven Al Qaeda suspects were living in a house belonging to one of the them.
The owner of the house, father of one of Al Qaeda suspect, fired at the security forces while surrounding the house injuring one soldier before he was killed by the security men, the statement said.
A man was killed and a soldier injured in shoot-out between Al Qaeda suspects and Yemeni security forces who raided a hideout in the Yemeni capital Sana'a arresting a total of 11 Al Qaeda suspects, an official statment said Thursday.
The operation was in Sawad Hanash in Sana'a where the eleven Al Qaeda suspects were living in a house belonging to one of the them.
The owner of the house, father of one of Al Qaeda suspect, fired at the security forces while surrounding the house injuring one soldier before he was killed by the security men, the statement said.
U.S. Gives Yemen Arms, Development to Fight Al-Qaeda
Source: Bloomber By Peter S. Green and Khaled Abdullah
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- An American diplomat told Yemen’s president the U.S. will deliver more aid to help Yemen battle al-Qaeda through both arms and economic development, the State Department said today.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman met Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and said the Obama administration is determined to increase aid to boost Yemen’s security and anti-terrorism capacities.
Feltman delivered a “verbal message” to the Yemeni government that the U.S. will give the country $67.25 million in development and security assistance in the current fiscal year, which began in October, and that President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $106.1 million in 2011, said Megan Mattson, a State Department spokeswoman.
Earlier, Yemen’s state-run Saba news agency reported the offer of aid by Feltman had come in a letter from Obama. Mattson said “no letter changed hands.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress on Feb. 25 that the U.S. needs to strengthen Yemen’s institutions and “economic opportunities” available to Yemenis.
“We’re working at a united effort from the international community, aimed at going after the terrorists, strengthening the military capacity of Yemen, and creating a development strategy in concert with the Yemeni government,” Clinton said.
Yemen presented donors in London in January with a national development plan that included a “very candid assessment of their own problems,” Clinton said. “We’re hoping to build on what seems to be a new resolve from Yemen.”
Yemen has stepped up operations against al-Qaeda in the country since December, after the terrorist group’s local branch took responsibility for a plot in which Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Dec. 25.
--With assistance from Henry Meyer in Dubai. Editors: Heather Langan, Edward DeMarco
To contact the reporters on this story: Khaled Abdullah in Sana’a at kabdullah2@bloomberg.net; Peter S. Green in Washington atpsgreen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- An American diplomat told Yemen’s president the U.S. will deliver more aid to help Yemen battle al-Qaeda through both arms and economic development, the State Department said today.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman met Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and said the Obama administration is determined to increase aid to boost Yemen’s security and anti-terrorism capacities.
Feltman delivered a “verbal message” to the Yemeni government that the U.S. will give the country $67.25 million in development and security assistance in the current fiscal year, which began in October, and that President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $106.1 million in 2011, said Megan Mattson, a State Department spokeswoman.
Earlier, Yemen’s state-run Saba news agency reported the offer of aid by Feltman had come in a letter from Obama. Mattson said “no letter changed hands.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress on Feb. 25 that the U.S. needs to strengthen Yemen’s institutions and “economic opportunities” available to Yemenis.
“We’re working at a united effort from the international community, aimed at going after the terrorists, strengthening the military capacity of Yemen, and creating a development strategy in concert with the Yemeni government,” Clinton said.
Yemen presented donors in London in January with a national development plan that included a “very candid assessment of their own problems,” Clinton said. “We’re hoping to build on what seems to be a new resolve from Yemen.”
Yemen has stepped up operations against al-Qaeda in the country since December, after the terrorist group’s local branch took responsibility for a plot in which Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Dec. 25.
--With assistance from Henry Meyer in Dubai. Editors: Heather Langan, Edward DeMarco
To contact the reporters on this story: Khaled Abdullah in Sana’a at kabdullah2@bloomberg.net; Peter S. Green in Washington atpsgreen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
Monday, 1 March 2010
President Saleh describes separatists as fascists
By Nasser Arrabyee/02/03/2010
The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh launched an attack on the leaders of the separatists in the south of the country where secession sentiment has been in rise recently.
"They lost their interests, they were at the top of the State, but it's them who did that to themselves, not us, they wanted to go back to the time before 22 of May, 1990," said President Saleh in a meeting with a university students.
Saleh referred to the failed secession attempt of 1994, which was called for by the-then vice president Ali Salem Al Baidh, who is now calling again for separation from his exile in Germany. The South and North of Yemen united in May 22, 1990.
It's impossible to retract the unity, whatever the price is, Saleh told the gathering of students who were mostly from the war-torn Sa'ada province.
"Those who call for using the green flags, they should have used the green flags before the bloody massacre of January 13, 1986," Saleh said referring to the civil war in 1986 between two factions of the Socialist party which ruled the south before unity.
The faction of Ali Saleh Al Baidh won the war against the faction of the then-ruler Ali Nasser Mohammed who is now in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Last week, the German-based Ali Salem Al Baidh, who was forced to leave for Oman after the failed secession attempt of 1994, where he kept out of politics for more than 15 years, called the southerners to take to streets with green flags appealing the international community to help them have independence.
"Fascist forces who were used to conspiracies and killing each other," Saleh said.
Meanwhile, 28 southerners were arrested over the last two days in the two provinces of Hudhrmout and Al Dhale'e where anti-unity demonstrations were staged.
The Ministry of Interior said 16 men were arrested in Ghail Ba Wazeer in Hudhrmout where they made riots and attacked houses and shops belonging to northerners. Three were arrested in Al Shaher area after they implemented riot acts.
Nine men were arrested in Al Dhale'e for participating in unlicensed ant-unity demonstrations.
In this regard, a south-based organization, called Radfan organization for defending unity, said that the separatists forced the school students to take to the streets over the last two days.
The organization condemned these acts against students especially the girls and called for holding the perpetrators accountable.
The organization also called for trying Ali Salem Al Baidh for "massacres and major treason" he made against the nation.
The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh launched an attack on the leaders of the separatists in the south of the country where secession sentiment has been in rise recently.
"They lost their interests, they were at the top of the State, but it's them who did that to themselves, not us, they wanted to go back to the time before 22 of May, 1990," said President Saleh in a meeting with a university students.
Saleh referred to the failed secession attempt of 1994, which was called for by the-then vice president Ali Salem Al Baidh, who is now calling again for separation from his exile in Germany. The South and North of Yemen united in May 22, 1990.
It's impossible to retract the unity, whatever the price is, Saleh told the gathering of students who were mostly from the war-torn Sa'ada province.
"Those who call for using the green flags, they should have used the green flags before the bloody massacre of January 13, 1986," Saleh said referring to the civil war in 1986 between two factions of the Socialist party which ruled the south before unity.
The faction of Ali Saleh Al Baidh won the war against the faction of the then-ruler Ali Nasser Mohammed who is now in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Last week, the German-based Ali Salem Al Baidh, who was forced to leave for Oman after the failed secession attempt of 1994, where he kept out of politics for more than 15 years, called the southerners to take to streets with green flags appealing the international community to help them have independence.
"Fascist forces who were used to conspiracies and killing each other," Saleh said.
Meanwhile, 28 southerners were arrested over the last two days in the two provinces of Hudhrmout and Al Dhale'e where anti-unity demonstrations were staged.
The Ministry of Interior said 16 men were arrested in Ghail Ba Wazeer in Hudhrmout where they made riots and attacked houses and shops belonging to northerners. Three were arrested in Al Shaher area after they implemented riot acts.
Nine men were arrested in Al Dhale'e for participating in unlicensed ant-unity demonstrations.
In this regard, a south-based organization, called Radfan organization for defending unity, said that the separatists forced the school students to take to the streets over the last two days.
The organization condemned these acts against students especially the girls and called for holding the perpetrators accountable.
The organization also called for trying Ali Salem Al Baidh for "massacres and major treason" he made against the nation.
Seven people killed in clashes between gunmen and security in south Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/01/03/2010
Seven people were killed including four soldiers when security forces raided a group of gunmen accused of supporting the separations calls in the city of Zenjubar, Abyan south of Yemen, local sources said Monday.
The separatist group was led by Ali Saleh Al Yafe, a local weapons trader, who is accused by the security forces of providing the separatists of weapons, the sources said.
The governor of Abyan, Ahmed Al Missari, however, said that only two soldiers were killed when the security forces stormed a hideout of a group of people wanted for the security.
Security sources, however, said two Al Qaeda operatives were killed in the operation.
The security sources said that weapon trader Ali Saleh Al Yafe and one of his comrades were killed in the operation. The sources also accused them of affiliating to Al Qaeda. Three gun men were arrested in the operation, the security sources said.
Four out of the six provinces of the south (Dhale'e, Lahj, Abyan, and Hudhrmout) have been witnessing increasing demonstrations and protests by disgruntled groups calling for independence of the south, which united with the north in 1990.
The restive groups, who call themselves the peaceful southern movement, although some of them take to the streets with guns and clash with security, claim they were socially and politically marginalized and discriminated against since after the failed separation attempt in 11994.
The failed attempt by the leaders of the socialist party, which ruled the south before unity, resulted in more than 70-day all out war which ended up in the defeat of the separatists.
Over the last two days, 27th and 28th of February, thousands demonstrators in the capitals of these four provinces took to the streets demanding the independence of the south. Those demonstrations came after the former leader of the south Ali Saleh Al Baidh called the southerners from his exile in Germany, to appeal to the international community to help them have their independence.
The demonstrations coincided with the donors' two-day meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh to help Yemen maintain its unity, stability, and security by solving its problems of the armed rebellion in the northern Sa'ada and separations calls in the south and growing activity of Al Qaeda in between.
Seven people were killed including four soldiers when security forces raided a group of gunmen accused of supporting the separations calls in the city of Zenjubar, Abyan south of Yemen, local sources said Monday.
The separatist group was led by Ali Saleh Al Yafe, a local weapons trader, who is accused by the security forces of providing the separatists of weapons, the sources said.
The governor of Abyan, Ahmed Al Missari, however, said that only two soldiers were killed when the security forces stormed a hideout of a group of people wanted for the security.
Security sources, however, said two Al Qaeda operatives were killed in the operation.
The security sources said that weapon trader Ali Saleh Al Yafe and one of his comrades were killed in the operation. The sources also accused them of affiliating to Al Qaeda. Three gun men were arrested in the operation, the security sources said.
Four out of the six provinces of the south (Dhale'e, Lahj, Abyan, and Hudhrmout) have been witnessing increasing demonstrations and protests by disgruntled groups calling for independence of the south, which united with the north in 1990.
The restive groups, who call themselves the peaceful southern movement, although some of them take to the streets with guns and clash with security, claim they were socially and politically marginalized and discriminated against since after the failed separation attempt in 11994.
The failed attempt by the leaders of the socialist party, which ruled the south before unity, resulted in more than 70-day all out war which ended up in the defeat of the separatists.
Over the last two days, 27th and 28th of February, thousands demonstrators in the capitals of these four provinces took to the streets demanding the independence of the south. Those demonstrations came after the former leader of the south Ali Saleh Al Baidh called the southerners from his exile in Germany, to appeal to the international community to help them have their independence.
The demonstrations coincided with the donors' two-day meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh to help Yemen maintain its unity, stability, and security by solving its problems of the armed rebellion in the northern Sa'ada and separations calls in the south and growing activity of Al Qaeda in between.
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