Two militants, five soldiers killed in clashes with Al Qaeda

 Two militants, five soldiers killed  in clashes with Al Qaeda 

Source: Reuters, 31/01/13

Aden-Yemen--Two militants and five soldiers were killed on Thursday during a Yemeni army raid on a mountainous area where insurgents linked to al Qaeda have been holed up since they were driven out of two southern towns last year, military sources said.

Two suspected members of Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) were also captured in the raid, launched on Thursday morning with army tanks and artillery.

Yemeni military sources said the campaign was aimed at flushing out militants who have taken refuge in caves in the area after they were driven out of Jaar and Zinjibar in a U.S.-backed Yemeni military offensive last year.

Ansar al-Sharia, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), took advantage of a power vacuum during the 2011 popular protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to seize the two towns.

Most of the militants fled to the desert or into remote mountain regions, where they have been waging hit-and-run attacks on army installations or military personnel.

"Five army soldiers were killed, 10 were injured and one popular committee member was killed," said an army source referring to local militiamen allied with the government.

The United States and its allies are concerned about the presence of AQAP and its affiliates next door to the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and close to key global shipping lanes.

AQAP is believed by Washington to be the most active branch of the global network and has plotted a number of botched attempts against U.S. targets. U.S. drones have repeatedly launched air strikes against its members.

The Yemeni army is waging a separate operation to the north-east against suspected Islamist militants in al-Bayda province, where three Western hostages are believed to be held.

At least six insurgents and 14 government soldiers have been killed in the fighting since it began on Monday with some 8,000 Yemeni soldiers involved. Eleven of the 14 soldiers died in a suicide bombing outside the town of Radda.

The fighting was suspended on Wednesday while tribal leaders tried to secure the release of the hostages -- a Finnish couple and an Austrian man who were kidnapped by tribesmen last month but were later sold to the insurgents.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Amena Bakr; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Sonya Hepinstall)

Yemen seized cargo of weapons from Iran to southern separatists

Yemen seizes ship with cargo of explosives, weapons coming from Iran

By Nasser Arrabyee, 31/01/2013

The ship seized earlier this week with the weapon cargo belongs to the separatist  southern movement led by the former president Ali Salem Al Baidh, said security sources familiar with the investigations Thursday. 

The investigations revealed that the 8 Yemeni sailors loaded the ship with the weapons from another ship in the sea.  Earlier, the same sailors succeeded to transport similar  weapons and explosives to separatists from Iran, the investigations revealed.

Earlier report from AP: 

       

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni authorities have seized a ship in the nation’s territorial waters carrying explosives and weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, the state news agency reported Tuesday. 

The U.S. said the ship came from Iran.

The report said Yemen’s coast guard intercepted the ship last week in an operation coordinated with the U.S. Navy. It did not say why news of the interception was not announced earlier.

The report said the vessel’s eight crew members were Yemenis.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters that crew members said the ship came from Iran. He said the ship was seen operating “erratically” in Yemeni waters “and so a routine boarding (was) conducted,” with U.S. support. The cargo was inspected, and it included weapons, he said.

Yemen has recently witnessed several cases of illegal arms shipments through its porous shores on the Red and Arabian seas.

Yemen is home to an active branch of al-Qaida, which staged several failed or foiled attacks on U.S. territory over the past several years.

On Tuesday, officials said attacks by Yemen’s air force killed at least 16 al-Qaida militants and wounded dozens of others. The officials said the air force launched several air attacks in central Yemen, where the militants have bases.

In another operation, the Yemen military freed 13 soldiers captured by al-Qaida Monday night. The soldiers were on their way to transport troops and a military ambulance when they lost their way, straying into al-Qaida-held territory, where they were captured.

The Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

___

Additional reporting by AP National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Yemeni faces death for converting to Christianity

Ex-diplomat loses last-minute bid to avoid deportation to Yemen, where me might be killed for converting to Christianity  Source: OttawaCitizen, BY HUGH ADAMI,28/01/2013  Abdul-wahab Zabeba is on his way back to the Islamic state of Yemen, where he faces the possibility of persecution or even death for converting to Christianity three years ago.

 An eleventh-hour appeal to the Federal Court to grant him stay of removal was dismissed Friday afternoon as Zabeba, 55, and his son, Mahir, 20, waited anxiously at the Ottawa airport for word that they might avoid deportation, at least for the time being.

 His lawyer, Karima Karmali, who took over his case last week, applied for a temporary stay of removal so the matter could be reviewed. The application was based on new evidence showing Zabeba would be in extreme danger in Yemen after word of the former diplomat’s conversion spread through the country.

A translated Toronto newspaper report about Zabeba’s case appeared on various Yemeni online news sites in recent months. Father and son were scheduled to fly from Ottawa to Montreal Friday night, and then board a plane for Qatar. They were to arrive in Yemen Sunday. Though Mahir remains a Muslim and isn’t thought to be in any danger, Zabeba fears he could be killed as soon as their plane touches down in Sanaa, the capital.


Apostasy is considered a crime in Yemen, punishable by death, though immigration officials believe the country no longer practises that law. Noomane Raboudi, a University of Ottawa professor and Middle East expert, told the Citizen last week that Zabeba would likely be killed for converting “to the religion of the enemy.” Rev. Fred Demaray, the Baptist pastor who baptized Zabeba in February 2010, has written Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. He wants Canada to make sure that Yemeni authorities monitor Zabeba’s safety. Zabeba also believes he is in trouble with his country for leaving his diplomatic post at the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 2008, to come to Canada. He sought refugee status for political persecution shortly after arriving at the Detroit-Windsor border crossing. That was denied by the Immigration and Refugee Board on Sept. 1., 2009. The board did not believe he was in any danger. Zabeba began attending services at First Baptist Church at Somerset and Elgin streets around the same time, and was baptized about five months later. In the summer of 2010, he was given a pre-removal risk assessment to determine if he faced any dangers in Yemen. The risk assessment officer did not believe Zabeba faced any serious trouble either, despite his recent conversion. The Federal Court eventually ordered another assessment, but Zabeba was rejected again. The Federal Court also allowed Zabeba to apply for judicial review, but his application was turned down last summer. Zabeba and his son slept at First Baptist Church Thursday night.

Yemen bans guns and motorbikes to protect UNSC meeting in Sanaa

Yemen bans  guns and  motorbikes to protect UNSC meeting in Sanaa

By Nasser Arrabyee,26/01/2103 

Yemeni government has taken exceptional security measures for security a special meeting of the UN Security Council in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday January 28th, 2013.

The special meeting of UNSC in Sanaa aims to support the new President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi who is facing a lot of  political, economic  and security challenges.

The interior ministry banned guns and motorbikes for three days starting from 8 pm tonight Saturday January 26 until the end of Monday. 

A total of 24 security and military units (tens of thousands) are protect the delegation of UN Security Council since the moment they arrive at the airport until they leave the country after the meeting on the same day Monday, according to a statement by the ministry of interior. 

Yemen Seizes New Turkish-Made Gun Cargo

Yemen Seizes New Turkish-Made Gun Cargo

 Source: Yemen Post Staff, 26/01/2013

The Yemeni authorities seized on Thursday a new Turkish-made arms cargo inside a container which was anchored and have been watched at the Aden port since mid-November. 

Head of the customs authority Muhammad Zimam said the cargo included scores of boxes containing machine guns that were produced and shipped in Turkey, the state news agency Saba said. 

“According to preliminary information, the cargo included about 3780 machine guns, T14 type,” he was quoted as saying. 

The guns were registered as plastic materials but the inspection systems revealed how the guns were smuggled in a very complicated way, he added. 

The container was seized in mid-November after it appeared suspicious, Zimam said, pointing out the authorities have been watching it and waiting for its owner to submit his cargo papers for the past few months.

“We were informed the cargo was shipped for a military service. Then we coordinated with the intelligence to open it and found the guns”. 

The cargo was part of a string of weapon seizures in recent months including those coming from Turkey and China and which reportedly were said to have been shipped for violent groups in the country. 

Also, it comes amid thriving arms and drugs trade and smuggling because of the alarming security disorder which casts a cloud on the political transition in Yemen.

No. 2 Leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen Is Killed

No. 2 Leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen Is Killed

By Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, 25/01/2013

WASHINGTON — Said Ali al-Shihri, the second-ranking operative in Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, died recently from wounds he received during a “counterterrorism operation” late last year, Yemen’s government announced Thursday.

Mr. Shihri, who fled Saudi Arabia in 2008 after taking part in a Saudi government rehabilitation program for jihadis, was a principal figure in engineering the rise of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula over the past five years.

The Yemeni government statement gave no specifics about how Mr. Shihri was killed, although both the C.I.A. and the Pentagon in the last several months have escalated America’s clandestine campaign against militants in Yemen with a series of drone strikes. The Yemeni statement said Mr. Shihri had been wounded in a strike on Nov. 28 in Sadah Province in northern Yemen and was buried in an undisclosed location.

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment on the death of Mr. Shihri, who was a Saudi citizen.

Mr. Shihri was one of the first inmates of the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He was brought to the prison in January 2002 after being wounded in an airstrike in Afghanistan two months earlier. He spent five years at Guantánamo before American officials released him into the Saudi program, which the kingdom’s ruling family set up to persuade jihadis to denounce violence and integrate into Saudi society.

But he fled Saudi Arabia the next year, and American officials were puzzled about his whereabouts until Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued a statement on the Internet in early 2009 saying that Mr. Shihri was the group’s new deputy commander.

Yemeni officials have blamed Mr. Shihri for a number of terrorist attacks in the country, and the statement on Thursday said that he “oversaw military operations against the Yemeni military” in Abyan Province, in the southern part of the country.

Yemen’s government allows the United States to carry out secret strikes inside the country, but it usually tries to mask the United States’ role, often by saying that the operations are conducted by the Yemeni military.

The 3rd top Al Qaeda leader might have been killed by drones

The 3rd top Al Qaeda leader might have been killed by drones

Most fresh drone attack kills 4 terrorists, death toll 16

Fresh US drone attacks kill about 3 raising death toll to 12 terrorists  over 24 hours

By Nasser Arrabyee, 21/01/2013

The 3rd  top leader of Al Qaeda Kasem Al Raimi, alias Abu Hurirah Al Sanani, might have been killed by the US drone attacks of  today Monday in Mareb, east of Yemen, said sources close to Al Qaeda operatives. 

Earlier in the day, a  total of 4 Al Qaeda operatives were killed by an air strike ( US drones) in the area of Al Taif in the high way between the capital Sanaa and Mareb, a local official was quoted by the defense ministry website as saying.

"The strike targeted the terrorists while driving their "Vitara" car," said the official. 

Late Sunday, at least three Al Qaeda operatives were killed by fresh US drone attacks raise the death toll to 12 in the eastern province of Mareb by drones during the last 24 hours.

The new raid targeted a car carrying Al Qaeda operatives in the area of Al Kanaes ( Khanaka) in Abeidah valley Sunday afternoon said local sources.

The sources said that those killed today were not from Mareb, they might have been foreigners or Yemenis from other provinces.

"If they were from Mareb, from Abiedah like yesterday, we would definitely who they were very quickly, now family from Abiedah at least said so far they had someone died," said Abdul Sallam from Abiedah.

A total of 9 charred dead bodies believed to Al Qaeda operatives were buried early morning  Sunday  in two separate places  of Abeidah valley in the eastern province of Mareb, said residents who attended burials.

"The  dead bodies were buried together, because they were chopped into pieces and were so charred that they can not be recognized," said Saeed Al Yousifi from Abiedah. 

Each group was buried nearby the place where the strike happened.  Four were buried in Al Masil and five were buried in Al Shabwan.

The 9 Al Qaeda operatives were killed after US drones implemented at least 4 raids on three different places in the same area of Abiedah valley, where Al Qaeda is always active, late at night of Saturday.

In the first attack, the missiles of the drones hit an orange farm in Al Masil area instead of hitting a car carrying Al Qaeda operatives which was driving nearby the farm.

No one was hurt in the farm but some damages were inflicted on the farm and residents were terrified because the attacks were so close to their houses villages. 

In about an hour after the first raid which happened about 930 pm, the US drones hit and destroyed a car in All Rashid area which is not very far from Al Masil, and both of them are in Abeidah valley. In the car, Ismail Saeed Jamil from Abeidah and three others were killed. 

Locals said that two of these killed with Jamil were Saudi nationals.The slain  Ismail Saeed Jamil was the brother of Al Qaeda leader Ali Saeed Jamil who was killed in Abyan in the middle 2011.

For the third and fourth strikes, they targeted a car in Al Shabwan killing the Al Qaeda leader Ahmed Hassan Gharib and four other aides who were not identified because they were so charred that they can not be recognized.