Source: New York Times
By NASSERARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN 31\05\2011
The field of battle expanded again in Yemen on Tuesday as a cease-fire between government forces and opposition tribesmen in the capital broke down, renewing fears that the country’s continuing political stalemate could drag it into civil war.
The fighting came a day after the government pounded a major coastal city with airstrikes to dislodge Islamic militants and, to the west, smashed the country’s largest antigovernment demonstration in clashes that killed at least 20 protesters.
Artillery explosions and machine-gun fire echoed across the center of the capital, Sana, late Monday and Tuesday morning as fierce fighting shattered a tenuous truce that lasted less than two days.
Black smoke rose over the Hasaba neighborhood as security forces attacked a compound belonging to the family of Hamid al-Ahmar, the strongest tribal rival of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and tribesmen loyal to the Ahmars retook a government building near the compound that they had vacated as part of the truce deal on Sunday.
Violence broke out in Sana a week ago after Mr. Saleh refused to follow through on his promise to sign an agreement leading to his resignation following months of street protests against his rule. It was the third time since the uprising began in January that Mr. Saleh had agreed to transfer power, and the third time that he had reneged.
Both sides blamed the other for breaking the cease-fire as fighting flared in Hasaba, where many government ministries are located. Witnesses said a local police station was burned to the ground before dawn on Tuesday. The two sides traded artillery fire near the state-run television headquarters.
“Last night’s clashes were the fiercest so far,” Mohammed al-Quraiti, a neighborhood resident, told Reuters. “My children and I couldn’t sleep all night because of the heavy shooting.”
Street battles in the capital reopened a central front for Yemen’s security forces, which have moved forcefully to contain a diverse group of distinct opponents, including tribal fighters, militant Islamists and nonviolent antigovernment protesters.
The latter group found themselves the target of a harsh crackdown in the city of Taiz late Sunday and early Monday as security forces and plainclothes gunmen swept through a main square, dispersing the thousands of protesters seeking the ouster of Mr. Saleh. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had received reports that as many as 50 people were killed in the ensuing clashes, The Associated Press reported. The United States Embassy in Sana condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack.”
On Tuesday, protest leaders responded to the crackdown with calls for mass demonstrations. “We are determined to carry our protests to five squares instead of the one that was cleared,” said Riyadh Adeeb, an activist in the city. “We will know how to defend ourselves this time.”
A large number of Republican Guard troops deployed around the city and were using gunfire to scatter those who tried to protest, witnesses in the city said. By the late afternoon, more than 100 women had massed in a central square, challenging security forces nearby to use force against them, a breech of social norms. “This place, Wadi al Qadhi, may become the new sit-in square if women stand firm in their place,” Mr. Adeeb said.
But the opposition women were soon dispersed by female police officers and women supporters of Mr. Saleh, a witness said; there were no reports of injuries.
In the southern coastal city of Zinjibar, five Yemeni soldiers died in fighting on Tuesday, Yemen’s state-run television reported. Hundreds have fled the city where Islamic militants took control over the weekend.
The latest news stories and independent and balanced reports on the political, security, economic and social developments in Yemen by the Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee.
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Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Monday, 30 May 2011
Yemen Battles Opponents on Two Fronts
Yemen Battles Opponents on Two Fronts
Source: New York Times,30/05/2011
By NASSER ARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN
SANA, Yemen — The Yemeni government ratcheted up its violent response to opponents on two fronts Monday, pounding a major coastal city with airstrikes aimed at dislodging Islamic militants, and smashing the country’s largest antigovernment demonstration in overnight clashes that killed more than a dozen protesters, according to witnesses reached by phone.
Residents in the coastal city of Zinjibar said warplanes attacked militant positions with repeated bombing runs beginning early Monday afternoon, a day after Islamist militants took control of the city, seizing banks and a central government compound. The army shelled the compound, which was also the target of many of the airstrikes, according to witnesses in the city.
As bombs fell in the restive south, security forces and plainclothes gunmen swept through a main square in the central city of Taiz, driving out thousands of antigovernment protesters and violently dismantling the country’s largest continuous sit-in.
Gunfire erupted in Al Huriya Square — dubbed “Freedom Square” by those who have camped there since mid-February — as protesters tried to climb onto the security vehicles, witnesses said. Video posted on social networking sites by opposition groups showed plainclothes gunmen firing from doorways and from rooftops as protesters scattered.
The United States Embassy in Sana, the capital, condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack on youth protesters” in a statement on Monday, adding that the protesters have “shown both resolve and restraint and have made their viewpoint known through nonviolent means.”
Estimates of the number killed in Taiz ranged from 20 to 70, according to witnesses. Reuters, citing medical workers, said at least 15 were killed.
But those figures were difficult to confirm after a hospital within the protest area was looted early Monday, forcing the wounded to seek assistance further away, said Abdulkafi Shamsan, a doctor there. He said about 15 soldiers held nurses at gunpoint as they smashed computers, stole medical supplies and detained several injured patients. “They even shot their guns inside the hospital,” he said. “I was in the operation room, I went downstairs and I saw everything destroyed.”
After bulldozers and tractors cleared the square in Taiz late Sunday, Mohammed Dabwan, a resident who lives nearby, said no protesters remained on Monday. Witnesses said thousands of protesters had been at the demonstration when security forces descended on the square from three directions in a thick cloud of tear gas late Sunday afternoon. Clashes continued until after midnight with security forces firing water cannons and setting the protesters’ tents ablaze with Molotov cocktails.
Sporadic gunfire echoed through the city on Monday, witnesses said.
It was unclear how many people had died in the Zinjibar fighting, which began on Friday: the city is facing a near total breakdown of services, residents said, with little medical services available, and no electricity or water. Hundreds have fled the city to Aden, the largest southern city, or to neighboring villages. Those who could not afford to leave have taken refuge in local mosques, residents said.
The fall of Zinjibar to a few hundred self-styled holy warriors fed Western fears that a breakdown of authority could allow militants sympathetic to Al Qaeda to make gains in Yemen. The Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has commented on the takeover of Jaar in March, but has so far not claimed responsibility for seizing control in Zinjibar, and it was unclear whether the militants there conclusively have ties to the international terror group.
Some opponents of Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, have seen reports of broadening chaos as a ploy by Mr. Saleh to prove to wavering allies that he is necessary for the country’s stability. But there was no evidence on Monday that Mr. Saleh had any role in allowing Zinjibar to fall.
In Taiz, a government security official there said the violence was not an organized crackdown. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the government, said the clash started when “armed groups” from the opposition coalition attacked a nearby security station, setting fire to cars. The protesters then “kidnapped soldiers and took them to their sit-in square,” he said, where they were abused by the protesters. The official said the security forces then “decided on their own to go to the square and liberate their colleagues and clear the square from those making the riots, sabotage and murders.”
Witness in Taiz also said the fighting was touched off by a clash at a security station near the protest, but disputed that any soldiers had been kidnapped.
Reporting on events in Yemen was limited Monday by what appeared to be a block on international calls to phones belonging to Sabafone, a cellular network owned by Hamid al-Ahmar, the most outspoken of the Ahmar brothers and Mr. Saleh’s biggest tribal rival. Many opposition protesters — as well as some government officials — use the phone service.
Protesters at the main antigovernment sit-in voiced concern about the sudden violence in Taiz. “We are scared of course,” said Salah Sharafi, a student protester. “We are preparing ourselves for such an attack.”
The clashes in the south followed a week of battles in Sana that pushed the country to the brink of civil war. That front remained quiet Monday after a tenuous cease-fire deal reached on Sunday between tribal fighters and government forces.
Violence broke out a week ago between government forces and fighters loyal to the Ahmar brothers after Mr. Saleh refused to follow through on his promise to sign an agreement leading to his resignation. It was the third time since the uprising began in January that Mr. Saleh had agreed to transfer power, and the third time he reneged on the promise.
Nasser Arrabyee reported from Sana, and J. David Goodman from New York. Laura Kasinof contributed reporting from Hagerstown, Md.
Source: New York Times,30/05/2011
By NASSER ARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN
SANA, Yemen — The Yemeni government ratcheted up its violent response to opponents on two fronts Monday, pounding a major coastal city with airstrikes aimed at dislodging Islamic militants, and smashing the country’s largest antigovernment demonstration in overnight clashes that killed more than a dozen protesters, according to witnesses reached by phone.
Residents in the coastal city of Zinjibar said warplanes attacked militant positions with repeated bombing runs beginning early Monday afternoon, a day after Islamist militants took control of the city, seizing banks and a central government compound. The army shelled the compound, which was also the target of many of the airstrikes, according to witnesses in the city.
As bombs fell in the restive south, security forces and plainclothes gunmen swept through a main square in the central city of Taiz, driving out thousands of antigovernment protesters and violently dismantling the country’s largest continuous sit-in.
Gunfire erupted in Al Huriya Square — dubbed “Freedom Square” by those who have camped there since mid-February — as protesters tried to climb onto the security vehicles, witnesses said. Video posted on social networking sites by opposition groups showed plainclothes gunmen firing from doorways and from rooftops as protesters scattered.
The United States Embassy in Sana, the capital, condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack on youth protesters” in a statement on Monday, adding that the protesters have “shown both resolve and restraint and have made their viewpoint known through nonviolent means.”
Estimates of the number killed in Taiz ranged from 20 to 70, according to witnesses. Reuters, citing medical workers, said at least 15 were killed.
But those figures were difficult to confirm after a hospital within the protest area was looted early Monday, forcing the wounded to seek assistance further away, said Abdulkafi Shamsan, a doctor there. He said about 15 soldiers held nurses at gunpoint as they smashed computers, stole medical supplies and detained several injured patients. “They even shot their guns inside the hospital,” he said. “I was in the operation room, I went downstairs and I saw everything destroyed.”
After bulldozers and tractors cleared the square in Taiz late Sunday, Mohammed Dabwan, a resident who lives nearby, said no protesters remained on Monday. Witnesses said thousands of protesters had been at the demonstration when security forces descended on the square from three directions in a thick cloud of tear gas late Sunday afternoon. Clashes continued until after midnight with security forces firing water cannons and setting the protesters’ tents ablaze with Molotov cocktails.
Sporadic gunfire echoed through the city on Monday, witnesses said.
It was unclear how many people had died in the Zinjibar fighting, which began on Friday: the city is facing a near total breakdown of services, residents said, with little medical services available, and no electricity or water. Hundreds have fled the city to Aden, the largest southern city, or to neighboring villages. Those who could not afford to leave have taken refuge in local mosques, residents said.
The fall of Zinjibar to a few hundred self-styled holy warriors fed Western fears that a breakdown of authority could allow militants sympathetic to Al Qaeda to make gains in Yemen. The Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has commented on the takeover of Jaar in March, but has so far not claimed responsibility for seizing control in Zinjibar, and it was unclear whether the militants there conclusively have ties to the international terror group.
Some opponents of Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, have seen reports of broadening chaos as a ploy by Mr. Saleh to prove to wavering allies that he is necessary for the country’s stability. But there was no evidence on Monday that Mr. Saleh had any role in allowing Zinjibar to fall.
In Taiz, a government security official there said the violence was not an organized crackdown. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the government, said the clash started when “armed groups” from the opposition coalition attacked a nearby security station, setting fire to cars. The protesters then “kidnapped soldiers and took them to their sit-in square,” he said, where they were abused by the protesters. The official said the security forces then “decided on their own to go to the square and liberate their colleagues and clear the square from those making the riots, sabotage and murders.”
Witness in Taiz also said the fighting was touched off by a clash at a security station near the protest, but disputed that any soldiers had been kidnapped.
Reporting on events in Yemen was limited Monday by what appeared to be a block on international calls to phones belonging to Sabafone, a cellular network owned by Hamid al-Ahmar, the most outspoken of the Ahmar brothers and Mr. Saleh’s biggest tribal rival. Many opposition protesters — as well as some government officials — use the phone service.
Protesters at the main antigovernment sit-in voiced concern about the sudden violence in Taiz. “We are scared of course,” said Salah Sharafi, a student protester. “We are preparing ourselves for such an attack.”
The clashes in the south followed a week of battles in Sana that pushed the country to the brink of civil war. That front remained quiet Monday after a tenuous cease-fire deal reached on Sunday between tribal fighters and government forces.
Violence broke out a week ago between government forces and fighters loyal to the Ahmar brothers after Mr. Saleh refused to follow through on his promise to sign an agreement leading to his resignation. It was the third time since the uprising began in January that Mr. Saleh had agreed to transfer power, and the third time he reneged on the promise.
Nasser Arrabyee reported from Sana, and J. David Goodman from New York. Laura Kasinof contributed reporting from Hagerstown, Md.
Islamists Seize a Yemeni City, Stoking Fears
Source: New york Times
By NASSER ARRABYEE and LAURA KASINOF 30\05\2011
As Islamist militants were consolidating control over a second city in southern Yemen, seizing banks, government offices and the security headquarters, news agencies reported on Monday that the Yemeni air force was responding with bombing runs.
Residents in the coastal city of Zinjibar told news agencies that they had seen warplanes dropping bombs in an effort to dislodge the militants and that the army had begun artillery shelling.
The fall of Zinjibar to self-styled holy warriors who claimed to have “liberated” it from “the agents of the Americans” fed into Western fears that militants sympathetic to Al Qaeda could exploit the breakdown of authority to take control of territory.
Political opponents of Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, portrayed the takeover as a ploy by Mr. Saleh to prove to wavering allies why they needed to keep him in power.
While Mr. Saleh, who has faced months of massive street protests demanding his ouster, has frequently warned that militants would take over the country if he left, there was no evidence on Sunday that he had any role in allowing Zinjibar to fall.
The fighting in the south came after a week in which tribal fighting in the capital, Sana, pushed the country to the brink of civil war. That front seemed to quiet on Sunday as the government struck a cease-fire deal with its tribal rivals, bringing relative calm here after days of fierce fighting in which more than 100 people were killed.
Violence broke out between the two sides last Monday after Mr. Saleh refused to follow through on his promise to sign an agreement leading to his resignation. It was the third time since the uprising began in January that Mr. Saleh had agreed to transfer power, and the third time he reneged on the promise.
Officials described the truce as tenuous, and gun fire and shelling were heard in the capital late on Sunday night.
The protests that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in cities across Yemen continued, and at the largest one, in the central city of Taiz, security forces fired at protesters from a government building on Sunday, killing four, according to a local doctor, Abdul Rahim al-Samie.
Early on Monday, protesters there said that plainclothes men were setting their tents on fire and destroying others with bulldozers.
The United States has until recently backed Mr. Saleh as an ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, whose Yemeni branch is considered one of the most active terrorist threats against the United States and Europe.
The militants who took over the town of Jaar in March and Zinjibar this weekend are not known to have ties to Al Qaeda, but the volatile province of Abyan, where both cities are located, is filled with citizens who are sympathetic to the group.
Residents said that despite the efforts of a handful of soldiers, who mounted a brief defense, the town fell quickly and easily to several hundred militants.
Most of the military quickly abandoned the town on Friday, residents said, but it was impossible to determine whether they had been ordered to do so.
They also said that the militants had been driving around the city in cars with loudspeakers blaring, “We declare that Zinjibar fell in the hands of mujahedeen after it was liberated from the agents of the Americans.”
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that five soldiers had been killed in the fighting there since Friday.
The former defense minister, Abdullah Ali Eliwa, accused Mr. Saleh of ordering his forces “to hand over Zinjibar” to the militants in order to “frighten people that if he goes, Yemen will become Somalia.”
He offered no proof of that claim, and by Sunday government forces were firing artillery at the militants, which experts said suggested they were either not complicit or that the demonstration had run its course.
Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen analyst at Princeton University, said that Mr. Saleh “has certainly exaggerated the Al Qaeda threat throughout the years,” finding that foreign aid increases when the threat appears to be higher.
Mr. Saleh warned in a speech a week ago that Abyan would fall to Al Qaeda if he were forced from office. And when militants took over Jaar, Mr. Saleh in several speeches claimed that Al Qaeda was running the entire province of Abyan, a stark exaggeration.
Mr. Johnsen said it had not been determined conclusively whether the militants there have ties to Al Qaeda. The Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has commented on the takeover of Jaar, but has not claimed responsibility for it, he said.
Clearly the terrorist organization has taken advantage of the chaos to raise its profile, and the fighting in Zinjibar was another example of militants using the lack of authority to advance their own causes. In the north, Houthi rebels established themselves as the rulers of Saada Province in March after government officials fled the area.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has a stronghold in southeastern Yemen, which is believed to be the base of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric whose efforts as a Qaeda propagandist and plotter have gained prominence in the organization.
American officials have expressed alarm that the group has been allowed a freer hand in Yemen since the turmoil began, and have reported a stream of Qaeda operatives making their way to Yemen from other parts of the world to join the fight there.
The United States, which had refrained from criticizing Mr. Saleh even as his supporters fired on demonstrators, quietly dropped its support for him two months ago, viewing his position as no longer tenable and his value as a counterterrorism asset diminished by his declining power.
Nonetheless, American officials have pressed for a resolution that would allow its counterterrorism operations in Yemen to continue.
In Sana, Yemeni officials said Mr. Saleh had agreed to a truce with his historic tribal rivals the Ahmar family, and there were tangible signs of a reduction in tensions on Sunday.
Tribesmen from the Hashid tribal confederation loyal to the Ahmar family began Sunday to hand over to the authorities government buildings that they had occupied last week.
“We will hand over the other ministries one by one gradually,” Hashem al-Ahmar, one of the 10 Ahmar brothers, told reporters on Sunday.
“There is a truce and it is still holding,” said Abdul Karim Aleryani, a prominent governing party official and an adviser to Mr. Saleh. But a spokesman for Sadiq al-Ahmar, Abdulqawi Qaisi, told local reporters that the Ahmars would fully comply with a cease-fire only if the government removed its security forces from their posts in houses near the Ahmar compound in the Hasaba district in northern Sana.
By NASSER ARRABYEE and LAURA KASINOF 30\05\2011
As Islamist militants were consolidating control over a second city in southern Yemen, seizing banks, government offices and the security headquarters, news agencies reported on Monday that the Yemeni air force was responding with bombing runs.
Residents in the coastal city of Zinjibar told news agencies that they had seen warplanes dropping bombs in an effort to dislodge the militants and that the army had begun artillery shelling.
The fall of Zinjibar to self-styled holy warriors who claimed to have “liberated” it from “the agents of the Americans” fed into Western fears that militants sympathetic to Al Qaeda could exploit the breakdown of authority to take control of territory.
Political opponents of Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, portrayed the takeover as a ploy by Mr. Saleh to prove to wavering allies why they needed to keep him in power.
While Mr. Saleh, who has faced months of massive street protests demanding his ouster, has frequently warned that militants would take over the country if he left, there was no evidence on Sunday that he had any role in allowing Zinjibar to fall.
The fighting in the south came after a week in which tribal fighting in the capital, Sana, pushed the country to the brink of civil war. That front seemed to quiet on Sunday as the government struck a cease-fire deal with its tribal rivals, bringing relative calm here after days of fierce fighting in which more than 100 people were killed.
Violence broke out between the two sides last Monday after Mr. Saleh refused to follow through on his promise to sign an agreement leading to his resignation. It was the third time since the uprising began in January that Mr. Saleh had agreed to transfer power, and the third time he reneged on the promise.
Officials described the truce as tenuous, and gun fire and shelling were heard in the capital late on Sunday night.
The protests that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in cities across Yemen continued, and at the largest one, in the central city of Taiz, security forces fired at protesters from a government building on Sunday, killing four, according to a local doctor, Abdul Rahim al-Samie.
Early on Monday, protesters there said that plainclothes men were setting their tents on fire and destroying others with bulldozers.
The United States has until recently backed Mr. Saleh as an ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, whose Yemeni branch is considered one of the most active terrorist threats against the United States and Europe.
The militants who took over the town of Jaar in March and Zinjibar this weekend are not known to have ties to Al Qaeda, but the volatile province of Abyan, where both cities are located, is filled with citizens who are sympathetic to the group.
Residents said that despite the efforts of a handful of soldiers, who mounted a brief defense, the town fell quickly and easily to several hundred militants.
Most of the military quickly abandoned the town on Friday, residents said, but it was impossible to determine whether they had been ordered to do so.
They also said that the militants had been driving around the city in cars with loudspeakers blaring, “We declare that Zinjibar fell in the hands of mujahedeen after it was liberated from the agents of the Americans.”
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that five soldiers had been killed in the fighting there since Friday.
The former defense minister, Abdullah Ali Eliwa, accused Mr. Saleh of ordering his forces “to hand over Zinjibar” to the militants in order to “frighten people that if he goes, Yemen will become Somalia.”
He offered no proof of that claim, and by Sunday government forces were firing artillery at the militants, which experts said suggested they were either not complicit or that the demonstration had run its course.
Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen analyst at Princeton University, said that Mr. Saleh “has certainly exaggerated the Al Qaeda threat throughout the years,” finding that foreign aid increases when the threat appears to be higher.
Mr. Saleh warned in a speech a week ago that Abyan would fall to Al Qaeda if he were forced from office. And when militants took over Jaar, Mr. Saleh in several speeches claimed that Al Qaeda was running the entire province of Abyan, a stark exaggeration.
Mr. Johnsen said it had not been determined conclusively whether the militants there have ties to Al Qaeda. The Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has commented on the takeover of Jaar, but has not claimed responsibility for it, he said.
Clearly the terrorist organization has taken advantage of the chaos to raise its profile, and the fighting in Zinjibar was another example of militants using the lack of authority to advance their own causes. In the north, Houthi rebels established themselves as the rulers of Saada Province in March after government officials fled the area.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has a stronghold in southeastern Yemen, which is believed to be the base of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric whose efforts as a Qaeda propagandist and plotter have gained prominence in the organization.
American officials have expressed alarm that the group has been allowed a freer hand in Yemen since the turmoil began, and have reported a stream of Qaeda operatives making their way to Yemen from other parts of the world to join the fight there.
The United States, which had refrained from criticizing Mr. Saleh even as his supporters fired on demonstrators, quietly dropped its support for him two months ago, viewing his position as no longer tenable and his value as a counterterrorism asset diminished by his declining power.
Nonetheless, American officials have pressed for a resolution that would allow its counterterrorism operations in Yemen to continue.
In Sana, Yemeni officials said Mr. Saleh had agreed to a truce with his historic tribal rivals the Ahmar family, and there were tangible signs of a reduction in tensions on Sunday.
Tribesmen from the Hashid tribal confederation loyal to the Ahmar family began Sunday to hand over to the authorities government buildings that they had occupied last week.
“We will hand over the other ministries one by one gradually,” Hashem al-Ahmar, one of the 10 Ahmar brothers, told reporters on Sunday.
“There is a truce and it is still holding,” said Abdul Karim Aleryani, a prominent governing party official and an adviser to Mr. Saleh. But a spokesman for Sadiq al-Ahmar, Abdulqawi Qaisi, told local reporters that the Ahmars would fully comply with a cease-fire only if the government removed its security forces from their posts in houses near the Ahmar compound in the Hasaba district in northern Sana.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Heavy shelling to restore city from Al Qaeda in south Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/29/05/2011
The Yemeni troops are shelling the city of Zinjubar, capital of the southern province of Abyan, after about 200 Al Qaeda fighters occupied it, local resident said Sunday.
Masked gun men, believed be to Al Qaeda members, are seen everywhere in the streets of the city, after they plundered three banks and occupied all the government offices and security headquarters, the residents said.
The troops of the 125 Mica brigade shell the city randomly the city in a bid to force Al Qaeda fighters to surrender. Thousands of civilians are fleeing the bombardments to either to neighboring city of Aden or the close villages, and some of them hide in the mosques.
The local residents appealed to the right groups to help and pressure for stopping the random bombardments.
“Why all this bombardments on the houses and properties of the innocents, why there is no knight to knight battle, why the troops did not come and arrest these men who attacked the city,” said Nasser Al Fadhli, over phone from Zinjubar.
He said mortars are fired randomly causing a lot of damages and casualties.
“The shelling did not stop from early yesterday,” he added.
“We want this crazy bombardments to stop immediately,” Al Fadhli said “and if there is Al Qaeda people , they can be arrested easily”
Dead bodies of security soldiers are seen in the streets, according to eyewitnesses.
The opposition accused the government of colluding with the Al Qaeda to divert the attention from the anti- Saleh protests that sweep the country for four months now.
The former minister of interior, Hussein Arab, accused President Saleh of supporting the “alleged Al Qaeda” with the aim of making a chaos in the southern provinces.
“Those fighters who occupied Zinjubar city pretend they are Al Qaeda, actually they are not Al Qaeda, but they are armed groups working for Saleh,” said the former minister Hussein Arab, who is from the same province of Abyan, and who supports the ongoing anti-Saleh protests.
Earlier on Friday, Al Qaeda militants announced their control on the city of Zinjubar after they clashed and defeated the security, according to local residents.
Using loudspeakers, gunmen on board of a car were roaming in the city of Zinjubar late afternoon Friday saying “ We declare that Zinjubar fell in the hands of Mujahideen after it was liberated from the agents of the Americans.”
Five soldiers at least were killed when about 50 gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda members attacked the city of Zinjubar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan, local residents, and security sources said.
Eyewitnesses from local residents said that the militants were using five cars to move from place to place inside the city freely and without any fear.
The Al Qaeda militants plundered three local banks and occupied three security offices after they gave local residents three-hour ultimatum to leave their houses which were close to those offices.
Earlier in the year, Al Qaeda in the same province of Abyan, declared the town of Ja’ar as an Islamist State after they forced the government security forces to leave the town.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
President Saleh agreed with tribesmen to end fighting inside the capital
Yemen's president, powerful tribal chief agree to end fighting that has killed 124
Source: AP, By Ahmed Al-Haj
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's embattled president and the country's most powerful tribal leader have agreed to end five days of gunbattles that killed 124 people and pushed the country's political crisis closer to civil war.
The fighting between forces loyal to both men made the past week the deadliest since mass street protests for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule broke out three months ago. Although it could prevent bloodshed, Saturday's agreement will do little to solve the wider crisis, with Saleh rejecting efforts to negotiate his exit.
The week's battles began when Saleh's security forces attacked the home of Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the powerful Hashid tribal confederation and an uneasy ally who abandoned the president and joined his opponents. Tribal fighters came to al-Ahmar's defence and seized a number of government buildings in the Hassaba neighbourhood of the capital, Sanaa, during intense clashes.
Fighting then spread outside the capital when tribal fighters seized two army posts north of the city on Friday.
A member the committee of tribal leaders who brokered Saturday's deal said the sides had agreed to withdraw their forces from the neighbourhood starting Sunday morning.
The mediation committee will take control of the government buildings seized by tribal fighters so civilians can return to the area, the mediator said.
An aide to al-Ahmar confirmed the agreement's details.
"The committee reached an agreement, and we will abide by it," he said.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The agreement late Saturday followed steps by both sides to undermine the other, with al-Ahmar calling on security forces to desert the president and Yemeni authorities issuing an arrest warrant for the tribal leader.
In a letter to security forces, al-Ahmar called on the Republican Guard and other security forces to help "get rid of this regime and be among the makers of the change that the people are calling for."
Experts say the uprising's future will be determined by the number of tribes and security forces that turn against Saleh. Many already have, including the Hashid confederation, to which Saleh's tribe belongs. Some army units have also left Saleh to back the protesters, though they did not join the fight against his forces.
The wave of defections picked up after Saleh intensified a crackdown on the protesters that has killed more than 150 demonstrators.
Al-Ahmar's letter — published online and read aloud and distributed at meetings with tribal leaders — called on others to leave Saleh.
"The enemy of all these people is Saleh, who has weighed heavily upon our people for all these years and confiscated the simplest of Yemeni citizens' rights to serve the interests of Saleh, his sons and his family," he wrote.
He called on soldiers not to "sacrifice themselves for one individual or family" and to stand with the people in choosing "change and the dream of a better future."
It remains unclear if al-Ahmar's letter will have any effect. Much of Saleh's power base is made up of childhood friends and family members he placed in high-level security posts, decreasing the chances of defection. Yemen's powerful Republican Guard, which al-Ahmar called on specifically, is commanded by one of Saleh's sons and has remained loyal to the president as other military units have defected.
The week's clashes followed a breakdown in efforts by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbours to negotiate an end to the crisis. The deal would have required Saleh to step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution, but he balked at signing.
The Hashid turned against Saleh two months ago, throwing its weight behind the protesters. But before this week, it had kept its well-armed fighters on the sidelines.
The United States, which once considered Saleh a necessary ally in fighting an active al-Qaida branch in Yemen, has turned away from the Yemeni ruler, calling on him to peacefully transfer power.
Source: AP, By Ahmed Al-Haj
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's embattled president and the country's most powerful tribal leader have agreed to end five days of gunbattles that killed 124 people and pushed the country's political crisis closer to civil war.
The fighting between forces loyal to both men made the past week the deadliest since mass street protests for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule broke out three months ago. Although it could prevent bloodshed, Saturday's agreement will do little to solve the wider crisis, with Saleh rejecting efforts to negotiate his exit.
The week's battles began when Saleh's security forces attacked the home of Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the powerful Hashid tribal confederation and an uneasy ally who abandoned the president and joined his opponents. Tribal fighters came to al-Ahmar's defence and seized a number of government buildings in the Hassaba neighbourhood of the capital, Sanaa, during intense clashes.
Fighting then spread outside the capital when tribal fighters seized two army posts north of the city on Friday.
A member the committee of tribal leaders who brokered Saturday's deal said the sides had agreed to withdraw their forces from the neighbourhood starting Sunday morning.
The mediation committee will take control of the government buildings seized by tribal fighters so civilians can return to the area, the mediator said.
An aide to al-Ahmar confirmed the agreement's details.
"The committee reached an agreement, and we will abide by it," he said.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The agreement late Saturday followed steps by both sides to undermine the other, with al-Ahmar calling on security forces to desert the president and Yemeni authorities issuing an arrest warrant for the tribal leader.
In a letter to security forces, al-Ahmar called on the Republican Guard and other security forces to help "get rid of this regime and be among the makers of the change that the people are calling for."
Experts say the uprising's future will be determined by the number of tribes and security forces that turn against Saleh. Many already have, including the Hashid confederation, to which Saleh's tribe belongs. Some army units have also left Saleh to back the protesters, though they did not join the fight against his forces.
The wave of defections picked up after Saleh intensified a crackdown on the protesters that has killed more than 150 demonstrators.
Al-Ahmar's letter — published online and read aloud and distributed at meetings with tribal leaders — called on others to leave Saleh.
"The enemy of all these people is Saleh, who has weighed heavily upon our people for all these years and confiscated the simplest of Yemeni citizens' rights to serve the interests of Saleh, his sons and his family," he wrote.
He called on soldiers not to "sacrifice themselves for one individual or family" and to stand with the people in choosing "change and the dream of a better future."
It remains unclear if al-Ahmar's letter will have any effect. Much of Saleh's power base is made up of childhood friends and family members he placed in high-level security posts, decreasing the chances of defection. Yemen's powerful Republican Guard, which al-Ahmar called on specifically, is commanded by one of Saleh's sons and has remained loyal to the president as other military units have defected.
The week's clashes followed a breakdown in efforts by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbours to negotiate an end to the crisis. The deal would have required Saleh to step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution, but he balked at signing.
The Hashid turned against Saleh two months ago, throwing its weight behind the protesters. But before this week, it had kept its well-armed fighters on the sidelines.
The United States, which once considered Saleh a necessary ally in fighting an active al-Qaida branch in Yemen, has turned away from the Yemeni ruler, calling on him to peacefully transfer power.
Unrest costs Yemen 5 billion dollars so far
Source: Reuters,28/05/2011
By Samia Nakhoul
* Minister says aid should not be linked to politics
* Vital oil sector hit hard by conflict
* Foreign donors seek change of leadership (Adds quotes, details)
SANAA- The political crisis that has pushed Yemen to the brink of civil war has cost the economy as much as $5 billion, and immediate aid is needed to prevent a meltdown, the country's trade minister said on Saturday.
Three months of street fighting and political protests have left nearly 300 dead, scared away investors, driven off urgently needed foreign aid and swollen budget deficits.
"We have reports that the losses range between four to five billion dollars," Hisham Sharaf Abdalla, minister of industry and trade, told Reuters in an interview.
Western and Gulf donors have called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to end his 33-year reign under a Gulf-brokered deal and are wary of turning on the aid taps until a solution is found to a crisis that has pushed the state toward collapse.
"The economy should not be held hostage to the political crisis, because the situation is alarming," the trade minister said.
The outside world is worried that chaos in the country could benefit the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda and threaten adjacent Saudi Arabia, the world's No. 1 oil exporter. Yemen is also on a shipping lane through which 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
The Group of Eight powers promised tens of billions of dollars in aid to Tunisia and Egypt at their summit on Friday and held out the prospect even more to foster the Arab Spring and the new democracies emerging from popular uprisings. [ID:nLDE74Q087]
Abdalla said the conflict in Yemen has hit the tourism and construction sectors hard while straining a still-functioning electric grid.
The political crisis is expected to swell the deficit from an initial projection of 4 percent of GDP to 7 percent, he said.
Some of Yemen's biggest losses are related to fuel in the country that relies on oil for 60 percent of its income and a has a nominal GDP of $31 billion.
Abdalla said in April and May, Yemen has had to import fuel and petroleum derivatives, which have cost $1 billion over the two months.
"We started doing that because the opposition pushed the tribes to bomb the oil pipeline, which has been closed since the end of March," he said.
Damaged pipelines have also cut off an important source of income for the world's 32nd largest oil exporter and 16th biggest seller of liquefied natural gas.
"Our biggest problem is that we haven't been able to attract foreign direct investment to create jobs because of the security problem in Yemen," he said.
But economists said the problems are much deeper than that.
Under President Saleh, Yemen became the poorest country in the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula with about 40 percent of the population living on less than $2 a day.
"If there is no injection from outside ... the Yemen economy will collapse, definitely," Mohamed al-Maytami, economics professor at Sanaa University, said earlier this month.
"The rial will collapse, inflation will rise to a level Yemen had never witnessed, the most needed food will not be available for majority of people who are poor," he said.
Abdalla called for a resumption of foreign aid and expected the Gulf-led initiative for a transition of power to provide economic assistance of about $2 billion to $3 billion.
But most of all, he said the stated needed help now.
"We should not get the economy mixed with the ongoing political game." (Writing by Jon Herskovitz in Dubai; Editing by Jon Hemming)
By Samia Nakhoul
* Minister says aid should not be linked to politics
* Vital oil sector hit hard by conflict
* Foreign donors seek change of leadership (Adds quotes, details)
SANAA- The political crisis that has pushed Yemen to the brink of civil war has cost the economy as much as $5 billion, and immediate aid is needed to prevent a meltdown, the country's trade minister said on Saturday.
Three months of street fighting and political protests have left nearly 300 dead, scared away investors, driven off urgently needed foreign aid and swollen budget deficits.
"We have reports that the losses range between four to five billion dollars," Hisham Sharaf Abdalla, minister of industry and trade, told Reuters in an interview.
Western and Gulf donors have called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to end his 33-year reign under a Gulf-brokered deal and are wary of turning on the aid taps until a solution is found to a crisis that has pushed the state toward collapse.
"The economy should not be held hostage to the political crisis, because the situation is alarming," the trade minister said.
The outside world is worried that chaos in the country could benefit the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda and threaten adjacent Saudi Arabia, the world's No. 1 oil exporter. Yemen is also on a shipping lane through which 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
The Group of Eight powers promised tens of billions of dollars in aid to Tunisia and Egypt at their summit on Friday and held out the prospect even more to foster the Arab Spring and the new democracies emerging from popular uprisings. [ID:nLDE74Q087]
Abdalla said the conflict in Yemen has hit the tourism and construction sectors hard while straining a still-functioning electric grid.
The political crisis is expected to swell the deficit from an initial projection of 4 percent of GDP to 7 percent, he said.
Some of Yemen's biggest losses are related to fuel in the country that relies on oil for 60 percent of its income and a has a nominal GDP of $31 billion.
Abdalla said in April and May, Yemen has had to import fuel and petroleum derivatives, which have cost $1 billion over the two months.
"We started doing that because the opposition pushed the tribes to bomb the oil pipeline, which has been closed since the end of March," he said.
Damaged pipelines have also cut off an important source of income for the world's 32nd largest oil exporter and 16th biggest seller of liquefied natural gas.
"Our biggest problem is that we haven't been able to attract foreign direct investment to create jobs because of the security problem in Yemen," he said.
But economists said the problems are much deeper than that.
Under President Saleh, Yemen became the poorest country in the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula with about 40 percent of the population living on less than $2 a day.
"If there is no injection from outside ... the Yemen economy will collapse, definitely," Mohamed al-Maytami, economics professor at Sanaa University, said earlier this month.
"The rial will collapse, inflation will rise to a level Yemen had never witnessed, the most needed food will not be available for majority of people who are poor," he said.
Abdalla called for a resumption of foreign aid and expected the Gulf-led initiative for a transition of power to provide economic assistance of about $2 billion to $3 billion.
But most of all, he said the stated needed help now.
"We should not get the economy mixed with the ongoing political game." (Writing by Jon Herskovitz in Dubai; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Friday, 27 May 2011
Al Qaeda in Yemen says it liberated a city from agents of Americans
By Nasser Arrabyee/27/05/2011
Al Qaeda militants announced Friday their control on a Yemeni city after they clashed and defeated the security forces of the city, local residents said.
Using loudspeakers, gunmen on board of a car were roaming in the city of Zinjubar late afternoon Friday saying “ We declare that Zinjubar fell in the hands of Mujahideen after it was liberated from the agents of the Americans.”
Five soldiers at least were killed when about 50 gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda members attacked the city of Zinjubar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan, local residents, and security sources said.
Eyewitnesses from local residents said that the militants were using five cars to move from place to place inside the city freely and without any fear.
The Al Qaeda militants plundered three local banks and occupied three security offices after they gave local residents three-hour ultimatum to leave their houses which were close to those offices.
Earlier in the year, Al Qaeda in the same province of Abyan, declared the town of Ja’ar as an Islamist State after they forced the government security forces to leave the town.
Al Qaeda militants announced Friday their control on a Yemeni city after they clashed and defeated the security forces of the city, local residents said.
Using loudspeakers, gunmen on board of a car were roaming in the city of Zinjubar late afternoon Friday saying “ We declare that Zinjubar fell in the hands of Mujahideen after it was liberated from the agents of the Americans.”
Five soldiers at least were killed when about 50 gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda members attacked the city of Zinjubar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan, local residents, and security sources said.
Eyewitnesses from local residents said that the militants were using five cars to move from place to place inside the city freely and without any fear.
The Al Qaeda militants plundered three local banks and occupied three security offices after they gave local residents three-hour ultimatum to leave their houses which were close to those offices.
Earlier in the year, Al Qaeda in the same province of Abyan, declared the town of Ja’ar as an Islamist State after they forced the government security forces to leave the town.
Relative calm in Sanaa and clashes outside
Source:New York Times,27/05/2011
By NASSER ARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN
SANA, Yemen — More than 100 tribal fighters overran a military checkpoint to the northeast of the Yemeni capital Friday, killing several soldiers and taking control of an important eastern gateway to the city, according to tribesmen and witnesses. Five tribesmen were also killed, they said.
The battle continued into Friday afternoon, the tribesmen said, with the Yemen military carrying out airstrikes by helicopter on areas around the checkpoint, known as Al Fardha, in an effort to dislodge the opposition tribesmen. Located on a mountain, Al Fardha is the main checkpoint between Sana and the eastern province of Mareb, and an important strategic location for the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which has tried to seal off the capital to prevent tribal fighters from joining battles there.
But even as fighting raged outside Sana, the violence that has gripped Yemen’s central city since Monday appeared to ebb. Mr. Saleh canceled his weekly rally, which had in the past included thousands of government supporters from outside of the capital, and opposition protests were not as large as in previous weeks amid continuing fears of violence.
The relative calm came as representatives of Mr. Saleh’s government engaged in mediation late Thursday and again on Friday with tribesmen loyal to the Ahmar family, whose members play leading roles in the political opposition. The two sides fought fierce street battles this week after Mr. Saleh refused for a third time to sign a deal to transfer power in the face of vast street protests. More than 100 people have died in the clashes. Tribesmen, speaking to the local news media, have vowed to avenge the deaths of men from their tribes who had been killed in the fighting.
Previous efforts at mediation between government forces and Ahmar fighters broke down this week after a group of tribal sheiks came under fire almost immediately after arriving at the Ahmar compound. Tribal mediators were again at the Ahmar home on Friday, and talks appeared to be proceeding without any violent interruption.
Sadiq al-Ahmar, the oldest of the Ahmar brothers and the leader of the Hashid tribal confederation, spoke at an opposition protest on Friday and confirmed the mediation efforts. He also defended the actions of his fighters. “We wanted our revolution to be peaceful but were forced to use the weapons,” said Mr. Ahmar, who had sought to rally Yemen’s tribes against Mr. Saleh. “Now we would say we are ready for anything peaceful or not peaceful.”
Protesters at the main antigovernment sit-in remained divided over how to react to the violence. Some were angered by Mr. Ahmar’s comments. “He introduced himself as a leader for our peaceful revolution,” a protester at Friday’s rally, Tawfik al-Ammari, said doubtfully. “We want Saleh to go, but we do not want the Al Ahmar family to replace him.”
As the country moved toward a broader civil conflict, Mr. Ahmar’s efforts to widen the struggle appeared to be working, with Friday’s fighting at the northeastern checkpoint and battles on Wednesday in Arhab, a village north of the capital.
Western leaders condemned the “use of violence in response to peaceful protest throughout Yemen” in a joint communiqué issued Friday during the Group of 8 meeting in France, Reuters reported.
Mr. Saleh has been an ally of the United States on counterterrorism, but now American officials are considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions in order to press him to put an end to the violence by signing the agreement and leaving power.
Amid the fighting this week, residents in the capital hoarded cash from banks and thousands packed into cars and taxis to flee. Though Yemen has had its share of conflicts over the past 20 years, including a bloody civil war in 1994 and a drawn-out war against Houthi rebels in the north, most battles were fought outside Sana.
Nasser Arrabyee reported from Sana, and J. David Goodman from New York. Laura Kasinof contributed reporting.
By NASSER ARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN
SANA, Yemen — More than 100 tribal fighters overran a military checkpoint to the northeast of the Yemeni capital Friday, killing several soldiers and taking control of an important eastern gateway to the city, according to tribesmen and witnesses. Five tribesmen were also killed, they said.
The battle continued into Friday afternoon, the tribesmen said, with the Yemen military carrying out airstrikes by helicopter on areas around the checkpoint, known as Al Fardha, in an effort to dislodge the opposition tribesmen. Located on a mountain, Al Fardha is the main checkpoint between Sana and the eastern province of Mareb, and an important strategic location for the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which has tried to seal off the capital to prevent tribal fighters from joining battles there.
But even as fighting raged outside Sana, the violence that has gripped Yemen’s central city since Monday appeared to ebb. Mr. Saleh canceled his weekly rally, which had in the past included thousands of government supporters from outside of the capital, and opposition protests were not as large as in previous weeks amid continuing fears of violence.
The relative calm came as representatives of Mr. Saleh’s government engaged in mediation late Thursday and again on Friday with tribesmen loyal to the Ahmar family, whose members play leading roles in the political opposition. The two sides fought fierce street battles this week after Mr. Saleh refused for a third time to sign a deal to transfer power in the face of vast street protests. More than 100 people have died in the clashes. Tribesmen, speaking to the local news media, have vowed to avenge the deaths of men from their tribes who had been killed in the fighting.
Previous efforts at mediation between government forces and Ahmar fighters broke down this week after a group of tribal sheiks came under fire almost immediately after arriving at the Ahmar compound. Tribal mediators were again at the Ahmar home on Friday, and talks appeared to be proceeding without any violent interruption.
Sadiq al-Ahmar, the oldest of the Ahmar brothers and the leader of the Hashid tribal confederation, spoke at an opposition protest on Friday and confirmed the mediation efforts. He also defended the actions of his fighters. “We wanted our revolution to be peaceful but were forced to use the weapons,” said Mr. Ahmar, who had sought to rally Yemen’s tribes against Mr. Saleh. “Now we would say we are ready for anything peaceful or not peaceful.”
Protesters at the main antigovernment sit-in remained divided over how to react to the violence. Some were angered by Mr. Ahmar’s comments. “He introduced himself as a leader for our peaceful revolution,” a protester at Friday’s rally, Tawfik al-Ammari, said doubtfully. “We want Saleh to go, but we do not want the Al Ahmar family to replace him.”
As the country moved toward a broader civil conflict, Mr. Ahmar’s efforts to widen the struggle appeared to be working, with Friday’s fighting at the northeastern checkpoint and battles on Wednesday in Arhab, a village north of the capital.
Western leaders condemned the “use of violence in response to peaceful protest throughout Yemen” in a joint communiqué issued Friday during the Group of 8 meeting in France, Reuters reported.
Mr. Saleh has been an ally of the United States on counterterrorism, but now American officials are considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions in order to press him to put an end to the violence by signing the agreement and leaving power.
Amid the fighting this week, residents in the capital hoarded cash from banks and thousands packed into cars and taxis to flee. Though Yemen has had its share of conflicts over the past 20 years, including a bloody civil war in 1994 and a drawn-out war against Houthi rebels in the north, most battles were fought outside Sana.
Nasser Arrabyee reported from Sana, and J. David Goodman from New York. Laura Kasinof contributed reporting.
Analysis: Yemen gives wounded al Qaeda a chance to regroup
Analysis: Yemen gives wounded al Qaeda a chance to regroup
Source: Reuters, 27/05/2011
By Fernando Carvajal
LONDON - War in Yemen would hand al Qaeda's boldest militants greater scope to attack the West and repair the group's morale after the loss of Osama bin Laden.
With President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government mired in worsening political strife, the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is likely to have more freedom to apply a proven talent for daring and inventive bombing plots.
The small group -- some estimates put it at 300 individuals -- has nothing to do with a youth-based uprising seeking to end Saleh's long rule, or with opposition forces who fought pitched battles with his loyalists this week in the capital Sanaa.
But AQAP has international importance because it is al Qaeda's most intrepid community of attackers. It is adept at fielding operatives overseas, manufacturing and concealing sophisticated explosives, and producing compelling online propaganda that instigates attacks by others.
Its capacity to do all this from hideouts in remote regions in the provinces of Shabwa, Abyan, Jouf and Marib will grow to the extent that state security is distracted by political upheaval.
"Given how distracted Saleh's government is in its attempts to cling to power, AQAP has much more open space in which to operate at the moment," said Yemen scholar Gregory Johnsen.
A senior British counter-terrorism official said aspects of AQAP were "very troubling," including its ambition to strike outside its immediate neighborhood and what he said were its efforts to establish networks in East Africa and Europe.
SALEH FOCUSES ON "REGIME SURVIVAL"
"They've penetrated the global aviation system, they've got very competent explosives experts, seemingly we believe more competent than those of al Qaeda's senior leadership," he said.
The official said AQAP was operating "in a state which is failing and whose security apparatus ... has been diverted onto other matters, namely regime survival, creating areas of Yemen that are even less governed than they were a year ago."
More than 40 Yemenis were killed in Sanaa on Thursday, the fourth day of clashes since the collapse of an agreement for Saleh to step down and bring an end to four months of unrest.
A complete collapse in state authority would worsen a host of ills of more concern to Yemenis than AQAP, including graft, crime, unemployment and failing water supplies.
But it is AQAP that is the West's top security concern.
Saleh told Reuters this week that al Qaeda had stepped up its attacks over the past few months but coordination with Washington in the fight against terrorism was going well.
Yet his critics say it is his misgovernment that has caused a range of problems including Islamist militancy, so much so that an end to his rule would be a gain for counter-terrorism.
"His continuation in power will only contribute to the underlying causes of al Qaeda to flourish in Yemen -- lack of opportunity, corruption, cracking down on freedoms and rights, and killing Yemeni citizens in the name of fighting AQAP," Nadwa Al-Dawsari, head of Partners Yemen, a conflict prevention group working with tribal communities, told Reuters.
"If he stayed, the youth demonstrating now will be so frustrated they may want to join AQAP, or other groups engaged in smuggling, in gangs, in drug dealing and other social ills."
Views such as Al-Dawsari's are widespread. But analysts caution that if Saleh is replaced, his successor will come under exactly the same pressure from the West to tackle al Qaeda.
Whether the current government's policies will be greatly altered by a new leadership is an open question.
"NO MAGIC MISSILE SOLUTION"
Many feel more emphasis on improving governance in security and the judiciary would be better than the occasional U.S. missile attacks the government has allowed or tolerated.
"There is no magic missile solution to the problem of AQAP in Yemen," said Johnsen.
"If the U.S. continues to pursue strategies built solely around killing leaders of the AQAP without partnering that with a much more aggressive and nuanced development and political approach, then it will continue to reap short-term gains at the expense of long-term stability," he told Reuters.
Lasting advances in counter-terrorism are bound to be a long haul in a country where state authority is often limited to big cities and main roads and where tribes often dominate the surrounding mountains, valleys and deserts.
Barbara Bodine, who served as U.S. ambassador in 1997-2001, told Reuters drones "most assuredly do far more harm than good. While frustrating, this is a case of finding training and supporting indigenous capabilities, not doing it ourselves."
Firm word on the scope of AQAP's activities is sparse, but analysts suspect it exaggerates its presence on the ground.
An AQAP cleric last month said the group was growing in Marib province and "openly in control" in Shabwa province.
Fernando Carvajal, a Yemen specialist at Britain's Exeter University, said religious leaders in Marib would not hesitate to run al Qaeda elements out of their areas if they became "liabilities" to relationships between communities.
Source: Reuters, 27/05/2011
By Fernando Carvajal
LONDON - War in Yemen would hand al Qaeda's boldest militants greater scope to attack the West and repair the group's morale after the loss of Osama bin Laden.
With President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government mired in worsening political strife, the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is likely to have more freedom to apply a proven talent for daring and inventive bombing plots.
The small group -- some estimates put it at 300 individuals -- has nothing to do with a youth-based uprising seeking to end Saleh's long rule, or with opposition forces who fought pitched battles with his loyalists this week in the capital Sanaa.
But AQAP has international importance because it is al Qaeda's most intrepid community of attackers. It is adept at fielding operatives overseas, manufacturing and concealing sophisticated explosives, and producing compelling online propaganda that instigates attacks by others.
Its capacity to do all this from hideouts in remote regions in the provinces of Shabwa, Abyan, Jouf and Marib will grow to the extent that state security is distracted by political upheaval.
"Given how distracted Saleh's government is in its attempts to cling to power, AQAP has much more open space in which to operate at the moment," said Yemen scholar Gregory Johnsen.
A senior British counter-terrorism official said aspects of AQAP were "very troubling," including its ambition to strike outside its immediate neighborhood and what he said were its efforts to establish networks in East Africa and Europe.
SALEH FOCUSES ON "REGIME SURVIVAL"
"They've penetrated the global aviation system, they've got very competent explosives experts, seemingly we believe more competent than those of al Qaeda's senior leadership," he said.
The official said AQAP was operating "in a state which is failing and whose security apparatus ... has been diverted onto other matters, namely regime survival, creating areas of Yemen that are even less governed than they were a year ago."
More than 40 Yemenis were killed in Sanaa on Thursday, the fourth day of clashes since the collapse of an agreement for Saleh to step down and bring an end to four months of unrest.
A complete collapse in state authority would worsen a host of ills of more concern to Yemenis than AQAP, including graft, crime, unemployment and failing water supplies.
But it is AQAP that is the West's top security concern.
Saleh told Reuters this week that al Qaeda had stepped up its attacks over the past few months but coordination with Washington in the fight against terrorism was going well.
Yet his critics say it is his misgovernment that has caused a range of problems including Islamist militancy, so much so that an end to his rule would be a gain for counter-terrorism.
"His continuation in power will only contribute to the underlying causes of al Qaeda to flourish in Yemen -- lack of opportunity, corruption, cracking down on freedoms and rights, and killing Yemeni citizens in the name of fighting AQAP," Nadwa Al-Dawsari, head of Partners Yemen, a conflict prevention group working with tribal communities, told Reuters.
"If he stayed, the youth demonstrating now will be so frustrated they may want to join AQAP, or other groups engaged in smuggling, in gangs, in drug dealing and other social ills."
Views such as Al-Dawsari's are widespread. But analysts caution that if Saleh is replaced, his successor will come under exactly the same pressure from the West to tackle al Qaeda.
Whether the current government's policies will be greatly altered by a new leadership is an open question.
"NO MAGIC MISSILE SOLUTION"
Many feel more emphasis on improving governance in security and the judiciary would be better than the occasional U.S. missile attacks the government has allowed or tolerated.
"There is no magic missile solution to the problem of AQAP in Yemen," said Johnsen.
"If the U.S. continues to pursue strategies built solely around killing leaders of the AQAP without partnering that with a much more aggressive and nuanced development and political approach, then it will continue to reap short-term gains at the expense of long-term stability," he told Reuters.
Lasting advances in counter-terrorism are bound to be a long haul in a country where state authority is often limited to big cities and main roads and where tribes often dominate the surrounding mountains, valleys and deserts.
Barbara Bodine, who served as U.S. ambassador in 1997-2001, told Reuters drones "most assuredly do far more harm than good. While frustrating, this is a case of finding training and supporting indigenous capabilities, not doing it ourselves."
Firm word on the scope of AQAP's activities is sparse, but analysts suspect it exaggerates its presence on the ground.
An AQAP cleric last month said the group was growing in Marib province and "openly in control" in Shabwa province.
Fernando Carvajal, a Yemen specialist at Britain's Exeter University, said religious leaders in Marib would not hesitate to run al Qaeda elements out of their areas if they became "liabilities" to relationships between communities.
G8 says Yemen leader must quit, as agreed
G8 says Yemen leader must quit, as agreed
Source: Reuters, 27/05/2011
DEAUVILLE, France-The Group of Eight leaders condemned violence by Yemeni forces against peaceful protesters and called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday to stick to his commitment to end his 33-year rule.
"We condemn the use of violence in response to peaceful protest throughout Yemen," the G8 leaders said in a communique to be released after a two-day summit in France.
"We urge President Saleh to immediately follow through on his commitments and ensure that the legitimate aspirations of the Yemeni people are addressed," the group added in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
The leaders called for "a peaceful and orderly transition."
(Reporting by Luke Baker, editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Source: Reuters, 27/05/2011
DEAUVILLE, France-The Group of Eight leaders condemned violence by Yemeni forces against peaceful protesters and called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday to stick to his commitment to end his 33-year rule.
"We condemn the use of violence in response to peaceful protest throughout Yemen," the G8 leaders said in a communique to be released after a two-day summit in France.
"We urge President Saleh to immediately follow through on his commitments and ensure that the legitimate aspirations of the Yemeni people are addressed," the group added in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
The leaders called for "a peaceful and orderly transition."
(Reporting by Luke Baker, editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Thursday, 26 May 2011
10 brothers threaten to depose Yemen defiant President
By Nasser Arrabyee, 26/05/2011
What’s happening in the Yemeni capital now is a war between the President Ali Abdulla Saleh and the ten sons of his historically, the late sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar, head of the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashid. The President Saleh belongs to the same tribe also.
From today, Thursday, Sadeq and his brothers are wanted as leaders of armed rebellion against the State, according to the general prosecutor’s office.
The oldest son, Sadeq Al Ahmar, who was almost the last of the ten brothers, to declare his support for the anti-Saleh protests, became the head of Hashid tribe after his father died late 2009.
After four days of fierce fighting between armed tribesmen loyal to Al Ahmar family and President Saleh’s security forces, which left about 100 dead from both sides, Sheikh Sadeq said on Thursday he would not accept any mediation and he’s ready to fight for years.
“We are ready to fight for years, and I’m saying this from a position of strength,” Sadeq told reporters in his house this morning while clashes were continuing outside.
He threatened to dismiss President Saleh bare-foot from Yemen.
His brother Hamid, the ambitious billionaire said also today is determined to ouster President Saleh and put him on trial.
“We we’ll implement the resolution of the Yemeni people who want to depose Saleh and try him,” said Hamid, who is accused of orchestrating and mainly funding the anti-Saleh four-month protests.
For the third brother, Himyar, deputy speaker of the Parliament from Saleh’s ruling party, threatened today, Thursday also, to expand the war if they were “forced” to that.
“Now it’s only my brothers Sadeq, Hashem, and Hashid, who are participating in the fighting, but if we are forced, we all will participate, then it will be crushing war,” Himyar told reporters.
The second most politically ambitious after Hamid, is Hussein, who is said to receive three million rials from Saudi Arabia every month, is currently in Amran, the family hometown, and the stronghold of Hashid tribe.
Hussein is mobilizing and preparing the tribesmen from Amran for enforcing his brothers in the capital when need arises, according to the bother Himyar.
The ongoing war, though still limited in Sana’a, confused the young protesters who raised the slogan of peaceful revolution from the beginning.
These young protesters in the sit-in square at the gate of Sanaá university are divided into two groups. The first group wants to have weapons and go fight with Al Ahmar family.
Most of this group belong to the Islamist party Islah, the same party of Sheikh Sadeq and his brothers.
“We must take weapons now and go to fight with those who helped us, otherwise we’ll be crushed in the battles of the big guys,” said Ameen Hefdhallah, one of the leading protesters in the sit-in square.
The second group however, says they want to keep peaceful and they refuse to side with anyone. “We’ll keep our revolution peaceful whatever happens,” Said Najeeb Abdul Rehman, one of the leading independent protesters in the sit-in square.
The majority of the protesters belong to the Islamist party, Islah, which leads the opposition parties which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites. Some other protesters scared and left the square.
Now that Yemenis have gone to such a limited but increasing war, the youth “peaceful” revolution has failed and turned to a war that might turn to an all-out civil war overnight.
It started from the Palace of the opposition tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar and his nine brothers in Al Hasaba area in the Yemeni capital Sanaá only one day after the President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign a US-backed and Saudi-led GCC deal for peaceful transfer of power.
Heavy and medium-sized weapons were used by the tribesmen of Al Ahmar who leads the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashed, to storm and occupy all the government institutions around the Palace such as the ministry of interior, ministry of trade, headquarters of the ruling party, and state-run news agency Saba.
This news agency, which feeds all official media with the news, is almost not working anymore after the upper three of the six-layer building were shelled with RPGs from the barricades and trenches around Al Ahmar’s Palace which is only less than 500 meters away on Monday.
Only one journalist was injured out of some 100 who were blockaded for more than eight hours in the basement of the building.
Al Ahmar accused Saleh’s forces of turning all these official buildings into military barracks to target them in their Palace.
The very beginning of this small but very dangerous war was early morning on Monday May 23rd, 2011, when Saleh’s security forces clashed with Al-Ahmar militants who came to barricade in a public school close to the Palace, but already occupied by security forces. Al Ahmar said the school was turned to a store of weapons.
The war intensified all the day of Tuesday in the area of Al Hasab around Al Ahmar Palace where hundreds of tribal leaders came to mediate between Hamid Al Ahmar and President Saleh. At least three tribesmen were killed at the outer gate of the
Palace by a missile before mediators left empty-handed early afternoon Tuesday.
The chairman of intelligence Ghalib Al Kamish was among the mediators who failed to contain the deteriorating situation.
The leader of the Yemen second influential tribe, Bakil, Shiekh Naji Al Shayif, started a second mediation very late Tuesday in a bid to prevent an all-out war.
The defected army of general Ali Muhsen has not interfered yet, but it is expected to protect the enforcement tribesmen who might come from Khamer, the stronghold of Al Ahmar’s tribes in Amran province north of the capital Sanaa in case the Saleh’s republican guards try to prevent them from entering Sanaá.
These developments came after President Saleh refused Sunday in the last minute to sign the power transfer deal after five officials from his party and five from opposition parties signed it but in different places.
Thousands of Saleh supporters took to the streets of the capital Sanaá on Sunday May 22nd, 2011,and started to block roads almost everywhere expressing their refusal to signing.
They blocked even the high ways between the cities and they even surrounded the Emirates embassy in Sanáa to prevent mediation members who included the GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani and Gulf ambassadors , US,UK, and EU ambassadors who were supposed to go to Presidential Palace to have Saleh sign.
They were evacuated by a military helicopter which took them to the Presidential office where only five officials from Saleh party signed but not Saleh.
The opposition signed the deal a day earlier.Saleh wanted the opposition leaders to come to him. “ How can we work with them for one month? over phone?, before whom they will take the oath,” Saleh wondered.
“ If they want a civil war, we will confront them with all means and they will be held responsible for the bloodshed,” He added.
After GCC chief returned to the Saudi capital, the GCC ministers who were in urgent meeting on Yemen, called the conflicting parties to be more patient to avoid a war.
The Saudi Arabia, who leads the mediation, however, urged Saleh to sign as soon as possible and said the GCC chief would come back to Sanaá for completing his task. Saleh is expected to sign on Sunday May 29th, 2011, if the current small war is contained.
US and EU urged Saleh to fulfill his promises by signing and implementing the deal and handing over the power. After what happened Sunday, the Americans ans Europeans hinted to other options including sanctions if he Saleh did hand over the power peacefully.
A Yemeni journalist was shot with a bullet in his feet when armed tribesmen belonging to influential tribal leader opposing the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, tried to storm government buildings nearby the palace of the tribal leader.
The spokesman of Al Ahmar’s Palace , Abdul Al Kawee Al Kaisi, said however, the militants of Al Ahmar only defended themselves when Saleh’s army and security forces tried to storm Al Ahmar’s Palace in Al Hasaba area, north of the capital Sanaá.
A source close to Al Ahmar’s family said, the militants of Al Ahmar were very angry when they saw Saleh’s supporters transfer a lot of weapons to the school of Al Ramah, which is not far from the Al Ahmar’s Palace.
“They realized that bringing such weapons to this school is only to target them,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“What happened today, came after a long series of provocative acts by the Saleh’s Balatega , thugs.”
“The sheikh supporters want only to defend themselves, they do not want to attack any one,” the source defended.
The billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and funding the 4-month anti-Saleh protests, has been grooming himself for presidency since 2006 when he publically called for a revolution against President Saleh after his candidate Faisal bin Shamlan lost elections and Saleh won.
However, some of the anti-Saleh protesters, look at what happened nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, as only conspiracy from Saleh and his supporters to divert the attention from the popular uprising .
“What’s happening is just a play from Saleh to portray the conflict as a conflict between him and Al Ahmar’s family and not between him and the whole people,” said Ameen Arrabyee, one of the leading protesters in sit-in square at the gate of university.
What’s happening in the Yemeni capital now is a war between the President Ali Abdulla Saleh and the ten sons of his historically, the late sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar, head of the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashid. The President Saleh belongs to the same tribe also.
From today, Thursday, Sadeq and his brothers are wanted as leaders of armed rebellion against the State, according to the general prosecutor’s office.
The oldest son, Sadeq Al Ahmar, who was almost the last of the ten brothers, to declare his support for the anti-Saleh protests, became the head of Hashid tribe after his father died late 2009.
After four days of fierce fighting between armed tribesmen loyal to Al Ahmar family and President Saleh’s security forces, which left about 100 dead from both sides, Sheikh Sadeq said on Thursday he would not accept any mediation and he’s ready to fight for years.
“We are ready to fight for years, and I’m saying this from a position of strength,” Sadeq told reporters in his house this morning while clashes were continuing outside.
He threatened to dismiss President Saleh bare-foot from Yemen.
His brother Hamid, the ambitious billionaire said also today is determined to ouster President Saleh and put him on trial.
“We we’ll implement the resolution of the Yemeni people who want to depose Saleh and try him,” said Hamid, who is accused of orchestrating and mainly funding the anti-Saleh four-month protests.
For the third brother, Himyar, deputy speaker of the Parliament from Saleh’s ruling party, threatened today, Thursday also, to expand the war if they were “forced” to that.
“Now it’s only my brothers Sadeq, Hashem, and Hashid, who are participating in the fighting, but if we are forced, we all will participate, then it will be crushing war,” Himyar told reporters.
The second most politically ambitious after Hamid, is Hussein, who is said to receive three million rials from Saudi Arabia every month, is currently in Amran, the family hometown, and the stronghold of Hashid tribe.
Hussein is mobilizing and preparing the tribesmen from Amran for enforcing his brothers in the capital when need arises, according to the bother Himyar.
The ongoing war, though still limited in Sana’a, confused the young protesters who raised the slogan of peaceful revolution from the beginning.
These young protesters in the sit-in square at the gate of Sanaá university are divided into two groups. The first group wants to have weapons and go fight with Al Ahmar family.
Most of this group belong to the Islamist party Islah, the same party of Sheikh Sadeq and his brothers.
“We must take weapons now and go to fight with those who helped us, otherwise we’ll be crushed in the battles of the big guys,” said Ameen Hefdhallah, one of the leading protesters in the sit-in square.
The second group however, says they want to keep peaceful and they refuse to side with anyone. “We’ll keep our revolution peaceful whatever happens,” Said Najeeb Abdul Rehman, one of the leading independent protesters in the sit-in square.
The majority of the protesters belong to the Islamist party, Islah, which leads the opposition parties which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites. Some other protesters scared and left the square.
Now that Yemenis have gone to such a limited but increasing war, the youth “peaceful” revolution has failed and turned to a war that might turn to an all-out civil war overnight.
It started from the Palace of the opposition tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar and his nine brothers in Al Hasaba area in the Yemeni capital Sanaá only one day after the President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign a US-backed and Saudi-led GCC deal for peaceful transfer of power.
Heavy and medium-sized weapons were used by the tribesmen of Al Ahmar who leads the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashed, to storm and occupy all the government institutions around the Palace such as the ministry of interior, ministry of trade, headquarters of the ruling party, and state-run news agency Saba.
This news agency, which feeds all official media with the news, is almost not working anymore after the upper three of the six-layer building were shelled with RPGs from the barricades and trenches around Al Ahmar’s Palace which is only less than 500 meters away on Monday.
Only one journalist was injured out of some 100 who were blockaded for more than eight hours in the basement of the building.
Al Ahmar accused Saleh’s forces of turning all these official buildings into military barracks to target them in their Palace.
The very beginning of this small but very dangerous war was early morning on Monday May 23rd, 2011, when Saleh’s security forces clashed with Al-Ahmar militants who came to barricade in a public school close to the Palace, but already occupied by security forces. Al Ahmar said the school was turned to a store of weapons.
The war intensified all the day of Tuesday in the area of Al Hasab around Al Ahmar Palace where hundreds of tribal leaders came to mediate between Hamid Al Ahmar and President Saleh. At least three tribesmen were killed at the outer gate of the
Palace by a missile before mediators left empty-handed early afternoon Tuesday.
The chairman of intelligence Ghalib Al Kamish was among the mediators who failed to contain the deteriorating situation.
The leader of the Yemen second influential tribe, Bakil, Shiekh Naji Al Shayif, started a second mediation very late Tuesday in a bid to prevent an all-out war.
The defected army of general Ali Muhsen has not interfered yet, but it is expected to protect the enforcement tribesmen who might come from Khamer, the stronghold of Al Ahmar’s tribes in Amran province north of the capital Sanaa in case the Saleh’s republican guards try to prevent them from entering Sanaá.
These developments came after President Saleh refused Sunday in the last minute to sign the power transfer deal after five officials from his party and five from opposition parties signed it but in different places.
Thousands of Saleh supporters took to the streets of the capital Sanaá on Sunday May 22nd, 2011,and started to block roads almost everywhere expressing their refusal to signing.
They blocked even the high ways between the cities and they even surrounded the Emirates embassy in Sanáa to prevent mediation members who included the GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani and Gulf ambassadors , US,UK, and EU ambassadors who were supposed to go to Presidential Palace to have Saleh sign.
They were evacuated by a military helicopter which took them to the Presidential office where only five officials from Saleh party signed but not Saleh.
The opposition signed the deal a day earlier.Saleh wanted the opposition leaders to come to him. “ How can we work with them for one month? over phone?, before whom they will take the oath,” Saleh wondered.
“ If they want a civil war, we will confront them with all means and they will be held responsible for the bloodshed,” He added.
After GCC chief returned to the Saudi capital, the GCC ministers who were in urgent meeting on Yemen, called the conflicting parties to be more patient to avoid a war.
The Saudi Arabia, who leads the mediation, however, urged Saleh to sign as soon as possible and said the GCC chief would come back to Sanaá for completing his task. Saleh is expected to sign on Sunday May 29th, 2011, if the current small war is contained.
US and EU urged Saleh to fulfill his promises by signing and implementing the deal and handing over the power. After what happened Sunday, the Americans ans Europeans hinted to other options including sanctions if he Saleh did hand over the power peacefully.
A Yemeni journalist was shot with a bullet in his feet when armed tribesmen belonging to influential tribal leader opposing the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, tried to storm government buildings nearby the palace of the tribal leader.
The spokesman of Al Ahmar’s Palace , Abdul Al Kawee Al Kaisi, said however, the militants of Al Ahmar only defended themselves when Saleh’s army and security forces tried to storm Al Ahmar’s Palace in Al Hasaba area, north of the capital Sanaá.
A source close to Al Ahmar’s family said, the militants of Al Ahmar were very angry when they saw Saleh’s supporters transfer a lot of weapons to the school of Al Ramah, which is not far from the Al Ahmar’s Palace.
“They realized that bringing such weapons to this school is only to target them,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“What happened today, came after a long series of provocative acts by the Saleh’s Balatega , thugs.”
“The sheikh supporters want only to defend themselves, they do not want to attack any one,” the source defended.
The billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and funding the 4-month anti-Saleh protests, has been grooming himself for presidency since 2006 when he publically called for a revolution against President Saleh after his candidate Faisal bin Shamlan lost elections and Saleh won.
However, some of the anti-Saleh protesters, look at what happened nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, as only conspiracy from Saleh and his supporters to divert the attention from the popular uprising .
“What’s happening is just a play from Saleh to portray the conflict as a conflict between him and Al Ahmar’s family and not between him and the whole people,” said Ameen Arrabyee, one of the leading protesters in sit-in square at the gate of university.
Fighting Worsens in Yemen
Source: New York Times
By NASSER ARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN 26\ 05\2011
Fighting between government forces and opposition tribesmen in Yemen spread beyond the capital on Thursday, drawing in new tribal factions and widening the country’s bloody civil conflict, now in its fourth day.
In Sana, the Defense Ministry said at least 28 people had been killed in a large explosion at a weapons storage facility belonging to tribal fighters, but did not provide details on those killed and the tribesmen denied that the cache belonged to them. Reuters said dozens had died Thursday in pitched street battles.
The death toll neared 100 since fighting began Monday after Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, refused for a third time to sign a deal to transfer power in the face of vast street protests.
The battles in the capital have pitted Mr. Saleh’s security forces against his tribal rivals, the Ahmar family, whose members play leading roles in the political opposition.
The two sides are struggling for control of important government buildings, including the Interior Ministry, which are near the Ahmar family compound.
Fear gripped the capital with residents hoarding cash from banks and thousands packing into cars and taxis to flee into nearby villages. While residents were allowed to leave, tribesmen from surrounding villages who descended on Sana from the south, east and north faced government roadblocks, effectively sealing off the capital.
Sadiq al-Ahmar, one of the tribal leaders, said he would not accept any mediation with the government and sought to rally Yemen’s various tribes against Mr. Saleh. “Ali Abdullah Saleh is a liar, liar, liar,” Mr. Ahmar said, according to a witness and a Reuters report. “We are firm. He will leave this country barefoot.”
Mr. Ahmar’s efforts to widen the struggle appeared to be working, as new tribal fighters loyal to Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani, an ally of the Ahmar family, battled government forces in the village of Arhab, north of the capital. Six people were killed in clashes as security officers left from two bases and attempted to head to the capital, about 20 miles away, according to witnesses in the town.
The United States includes Mr. Zindani, a spiritual leader, on a list of “specially designated global terrorists” and his entry into the worsening conflict is likely to stoke fears that a power vacuum in Yemen could provide an opportunity for militants.
The village of Arhab was the site of airstrikes against militants in 2009 after American officials, working closely with Yemeni authorities, obtained information about suspected training camps there for Al Qaeda.
Mr. Saleh had been an ally of the United States on counterterrorism, but now American officials are considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions in order to pressure Mr. Saleh to put an end to the violence by signing the agreement and leaving power.
That outcome appeared to recede Thursday as the government issued an arrest warrant for Sadiq al-Ahmar and his brothers accusing them of leading an armed rebellion, a move unlikely to quell the fighting.
The State Department has ordered all eligible family members of United States government employees and some nonessential personnel to leave the country, according toa statement on its Web site on Thursday.
For a fourth day, battles flared around government buildings near the Ahmar compound. Mortar fire blasted the headquarters of an opposition television station, Suhail, owned by the Ahmar family, which Mr. Saleh had accused of supporting the antigovernment protests. After the attack, the station was reduced to playing music and still images from the earlier antigovernment demonstrations.
Protesters at the main antigovernment sit-in remained divided over how to react to the violence. Some insisted that the demonstrations, which began in January, remain peaceful. “We will keep our revolution peaceful whatever happens,” said Najeeb Abdul Rehman, a protest leader.
But a larger group, including many from the country’s Islamist party, which has ties to the Ahmar family, called for protesters to join the fight.
“We must take weapons now and go to fight with those who helped us,” said Ameen Hefdhallah, another protest leader.
“Otherwise we will be crushed in the battles of the big guys.” There is also a smaller third group: those protesters who have left the sit-in and given up on the idea of a revolutionary, but peaceful, struggle for justice and freedom.
By NASSER ARRABYEE and J. DAVID GOODMAN 26\ 05\2011
Fighting between government forces and opposition tribesmen in Yemen spread beyond the capital on Thursday, drawing in new tribal factions and widening the country’s bloody civil conflict, now in its fourth day.
In Sana, the Defense Ministry said at least 28 people had been killed in a large explosion at a weapons storage facility belonging to tribal fighters, but did not provide details on those killed and the tribesmen denied that the cache belonged to them. Reuters said dozens had died Thursday in pitched street battles.
The death toll neared 100 since fighting began Monday after Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, refused for a third time to sign a deal to transfer power in the face of vast street protests.
The battles in the capital have pitted Mr. Saleh’s security forces against his tribal rivals, the Ahmar family, whose members play leading roles in the political opposition.
The two sides are struggling for control of important government buildings, including the Interior Ministry, which are near the Ahmar family compound.
Fear gripped the capital with residents hoarding cash from banks and thousands packing into cars and taxis to flee into nearby villages. While residents were allowed to leave, tribesmen from surrounding villages who descended on Sana from the south, east and north faced government roadblocks, effectively sealing off the capital.
Sadiq al-Ahmar, one of the tribal leaders, said he would not accept any mediation with the government and sought to rally Yemen’s various tribes against Mr. Saleh. “Ali Abdullah Saleh is a liar, liar, liar,” Mr. Ahmar said, according to a witness and a Reuters report. “We are firm. He will leave this country barefoot.”
Mr. Ahmar’s efforts to widen the struggle appeared to be working, as new tribal fighters loyal to Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani, an ally of the Ahmar family, battled government forces in the village of Arhab, north of the capital. Six people were killed in clashes as security officers left from two bases and attempted to head to the capital, about 20 miles away, according to witnesses in the town.
The United States includes Mr. Zindani, a spiritual leader, on a list of “specially designated global terrorists” and his entry into the worsening conflict is likely to stoke fears that a power vacuum in Yemen could provide an opportunity for militants.
The village of Arhab was the site of airstrikes against militants in 2009 after American officials, working closely with Yemeni authorities, obtained information about suspected training camps there for Al Qaeda.
Mr. Saleh had been an ally of the United States on counterterrorism, but now American officials are considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions in order to pressure Mr. Saleh to put an end to the violence by signing the agreement and leaving power.
That outcome appeared to recede Thursday as the government issued an arrest warrant for Sadiq al-Ahmar and his brothers accusing them of leading an armed rebellion, a move unlikely to quell the fighting.
The State Department has ordered all eligible family members of United States government employees and some nonessential personnel to leave the country, according toa statement on its Web site on Thursday.
For a fourth day, battles flared around government buildings near the Ahmar compound. Mortar fire blasted the headquarters of an opposition television station, Suhail, owned by the Ahmar family, which Mr. Saleh had accused of supporting the antigovernment protests. After the attack, the station was reduced to playing music and still images from the earlier antigovernment demonstrations.
Protesters at the main antigovernment sit-in remained divided over how to react to the violence. Some insisted that the demonstrations, which began in January, remain peaceful. “We will keep our revolution peaceful whatever happens,” said Najeeb Abdul Rehman, a protest leader.
But a larger group, including many from the country’s Islamist party, which has ties to the Ahmar family, called for protesters to join the fight.
“We must take weapons now and go to fight with those who helped us,” said Ameen Hefdhallah, another protest leader.
“Otherwise we will be crushed in the battles of the big guys.” There is also a smaller third group: those protesters who have left the sit-in and given up on the idea of a revolutionary, but peaceful, struggle for justice and freedom.
Protesters divided after some of their leaders decided to go to war
By Nasser Arrabyee, 26/05/2011
The Yemeni general prosecutor ordered the arrest of the tribal leader Sadeq Al Ahmar and his brothers for leading an armed rebellion against the State.
More 50 people were killed over the last few days in fierce battles between armed tribesmen loyal to Al Ahmar and security forces in the area around the Palace of AlAhmar in Alhasaba north of the capital.
Sadeq Al Ahmar told reporters on Thursday he would not accept any mediation and he would stand firm in his house despite the war.
Sadeq is the top leader of Hashed tribe, the Yemen most influential tribe, which is the same tribe of President Saleh.
Sheikh Sadeq and his brothers are accused of financing and orchestrating the 4-month anti-Saleh protests.
The young protesters in the sit-in square at the gate of Sanaá university are divided into two groups. The first group wants to have weapons anf go fight with Al Ahmar family.
Most of this group belong to the Islamist party Islah, the same party of Sheikh Sadeq and his brothers. “We must take weapons now and go to fight with those who helped us, otherwise we’ll be crushed in the battles of the big guys,” said Ameen Hefdhallah, one of the leadeing protesters in the sit-in square.
The second group however, says they want to keep peaceful and they refuse to side with anyone. “We’ll keep our revolution peaceful whatever happens,” Said Najeeb AbdulRehman, one of the leading independent protesters in the sit-in square.
The majority of the protesters belong to the Islamist party, Islah, which leads the opposition parties which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites. Some other protesters scared and left the square.
Now that Yemenis have gone to such a limited but increasing war, the youth “peaceful” revolution has failed and turned to a war that might turn to an all-out civil war overnight.
It started from the Palace of the opposition tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar and his nine brothers in Al Hasaba area in the Yemeni capital Sanaá only one day after the President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign a US-backed and Saudi-led GCC deal for peaceful transfer of power.
Heavy and medium-sized weapons were used by the tribesmen of Al Ahmar who leads the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashed, to storm and occupy all the government institutions around the Palace such as the ministry of interior, ministry of trade, headquarters of the ruling party, and state-run news agency Saba.
This news agency, which feeds all official media with the news, is almost not working anymore after the upper three of the six-layer building were shelled with RPGs from the barricades and trenches around Al Ahmar’s Palace which is only less than 500 meters away on Monday.
Only one journalist was injured out of some 100 who were blockaded for more than eight hours in the basement of the building.
Al Ahmar accused Saleh’s forces of turning all these official buildings into military barracks to target them in their Palace.
The very beginning of this small but very dangerous war was early morning on Monday May 23rd, 2011, when Saleh’s security forces clashed with Al-Ahmar militants who came to barricade in a public school close to the Palace, but already occupied by security forces. Al Ahmar said the school was turned to a store of weapons.
The war intensified all the day of Tuesday in the area of Al Hasab around Al Ahmar Palace where hundreds of tribal leaders came to mediate between Hamid Al Ahmar and President Saleh. At least three tribesmen were killed at the outer gate of the
Palace by a missile before mediators left empty-handed early afternoon Tuesday.
The chairman of intelligence Ghalib Al Kamish was among the mediators who failed to contain the deteriorating situation.
The leader of the Yemen second influential tribe, Bakil, Shiekh Naji Al Shayif, started a second mediation very late Tuesday in a bid to prevent an all-out war.
The defected army of general Ali Muhsen has not interfered yet, but it is expected to protect the enforcement tribesmen who might come from Khamer, the stronghold of Al Ahmar’s tribes in Amran province north of the capital Sanaa in case the Saleh’s republican guards try to prevent them from entering Sanaá.
These developments came after President Saleh refused Sunday in the last minute to sign the power transfer deal after five officials from his party and five from opposition parties signed it but in different places.
Thousands of Saleh supporters took to the streets of the capital Sanaá on Sunday May 22nd, 2011,and started to block roads almost everywhere expressing their refusal to signing.
They blocked even the high ways between the cities and they even surrounded the Emirates embassy in Sanáa to prevent mediation members who included the GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani and Gulf ambassadors , US,UK, and EU ambassadors who were supposed to go to Presidential Palace to have Saleh sign.
They were evacuated by a military helicopter which took them to the Presidential office where only five officials from Saleh party signed but not Saleh.
The opposition signed the deal a day earlier.Saleh wanted the opposition leaders to come to him. “ How can we work with them for one month? over phone?, before whom they will take the oath,” Saleh wondered.
“ If they want a civil war, we will confront them with all means and they will be held responsible for the bloodshed,” He added.
After GCC chief returned to the Saudi capital, the GCC ministers who were in urgent meeting on Yemen, called the conflicting parties to be more patient to avoid a war.
The Saudi Arabia, who leads the mediation, however, urged Saleh to sign as soon as possible and said the GCC chief would come back to Sanaá for completing his task.
Saleh is expected to sign on Sunday May 29th, 2011, if the current small war is contained.
US and EU urged Saleh to fulfill his promises by signing and implementing the deal and handing over the power.
After what happened Sunday, the Americans ans Europeans hinted to other options including sanctions if he Saleh did hand over the power peacefully.
A Yemeni journalist was shot with a bullet in his feet when armed tribesmen belonging to influential tribal leader opposing the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, tried to storm government buildings nearby the palace of the tribal leader.
The spokesman of Al Ahmar’s Palace , Abdul Al Kawee Al Kaisi, said however, the militants of Al Ahmar only defended themselves when Saleh’s army and security forces tried to storm Al Ahmar’s Palace in Al Hasaba area, north of the capital Sanaá.
A source close to Al Ahmar’s family said, the militants of Al Ahmar were very angry when they saw Saleh’s supporters transfer a lot of weapons to the school of Al Ramah, which is not far from the Al Ahmar’s Palace.
“They realized that bringing such weapons to this school is only to target them,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“What happened today, came after a long series of provocative acts by the Saleh’s Balatega , thugs.”
“The sheikh supporters want only to defend themselves, they do not want to attack any one,” the source defended.
The billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and funding the 4-month anti-Saleh protests, has been grooming himself for presidency since 2006 when he publically called for a revolution against President Saleh after his candidate Faisal bin Shamlan lost elections and Saleh won.
However, some of the anti-Saleh protesters, look at what happened nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, as only conspiracy from Saleh and his supporters to divert the attention from the popular uprising .
“What’s happening is just a play from Saleh to portray the conflict as a conflict between him and Al Ahmar’s family and not between him and the whole people,” said Ameen Arrabyee, one of the leading protesters in sit-in square at the gate of university.
No US options on Yemen, diplomat says
Source: Reuters, By Phil Stewart, 26/05/2011
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to step down is piling pressure on the White House to consider cutting U.S. aid to Yemen but, tempting as that may sound, it is unlikely to make much difference in the fast-deteriorating situation.
Indeed, the United States appears to have no good options in Yemen and remarkably little leverage over the course of events there, despite sending some $300 million in annual aid to the impoverished country on the Arabian peninsula.
Washington has sent a signal to Saleh that he must cede power by warning it may review its aid but experts say cutting assistance would only reduce U.S. influence further in a country crucial to American counter-terrorism efforts. It also would not likely change Saleh's calculus about whether to go.
The lack of options is a liability for the United States because al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, already at the top of U.S. security concerns, is expected to step farther into the spotlight after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.
Before Saleh's latest refusal to sign a power transfer deal on Sunday, White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan called Saleh to press him directly to formally accept the agreement. Otherwise, Brennan warned, Washington would be looking at other options, a U.S. official told Reuters.
It remains unclear whether the White House will follow through on the threat. When it comes to Yemen, U.S. influence is limited, experts agree.
"What options do we have to force a resolution? Almost zero," Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, told Reuters.
"I don't really think sanctions are really going to bring this to closure ... Certainly not threats."
The situation in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, has deteriorated markedly in recent days. Gunbattles between Saleh loyalists and opponents have killed more than 40 people since Monday.
U.S. DILEMMA
The U.S. dilemma in Yemen highlights a problem Washington faces globally in fighting militants with the help of problematic governments. While cries in the U.S. Congress to cut aid to Pakistan rose after it was learned bin Laden was hiding in that country for years, that too seems unlikely to happen.
The United States is providing Pakistan about $3 billion a year -- 10 times more aid than in Yemen -- for an alliance that at best appears half-hearted.
President Barack Obama acknowledged imperfect alliances in the Middle East during a speech on Wednesday before the British parliament.
"We must squarely acknowledge that, yes, we have enduring interests in the region -- to fight terror, sometimes with partners who may not be perfect," Obama said.
Earlier in the day he called on Saleh to "move immediately on his commitment to transfer power."
But Saleh, in a Reuters interview on Wednesday, said he would not bow to international "dictates" to step down.
Saleh, in power for three decades, was until recently seen as a crucial U.S. ally who allowed U.S. forces to conduct clandestine operations, including unmanned aerial drone strikes, against al Qaeda's local offshoot -- al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
But increasingly, Saleh is seen as a liability whose political weakness has been accompanied by deteriorating security, which has in turn undermined the fight against AQAP.
Continued violence Wednesday in Sanaa reinforced fears that Yemen could become a failed state like Somalia, and on the doorstep of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter. More than 40 percent of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day, while a third face chronic hunger.
"The current chaos does pose problems that we're concerned about -- this ongoing insecurity and the effect that it could have on AQAP's ability to interfere," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
"But that again just reinforces the fact that President Saleh should indeed sign this agreement and put Yemen on a path towards a political resolution," he said.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the political instability has distracted Saleh from fighting AQAP.
The group claimed responsibility for a failed Christmas Day attack in 2009 aboard a U.S. airliner and an attempt in October 2010 to blow up two U.S.-bound cargo planes with explosive parcels. Even before bin Laden's death, many senior U.S. officials saw AQAP as the top U.S. terrorism threat.
Critics have accused Obama of miscalculating in not adopting a tougher stance toward Saleh earlier on, relying instead on cautious statements that sought to balance concern about the violence with calls to the protesters to negotiate.
Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert, said the United States spent too long asking what a country without Saleh in power would look like and being paralyzed by fears of greater instability.
"The question that they needed to be asking is: What does Yemen look like if President Saleh continues to rule?" he said. "What the U.S. has realized is that what Yemen looks like if President Saleh remains in power is going to be very problematic for the U.S. and particularly for U.S. security concerns."
But when it comes to options in Yemen, Johnsen says there are no easy answers. "I think what's happening right now is beyond the realm of outside engineering," he said.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to step down is piling pressure on the White House to consider cutting U.S. aid to Yemen but, tempting as that may sound, it is unlikely to make much difference in the fast-deteriorating situation.
Indeed, the United States appears to have no good options in Yemen and remarkably little leverage over the course of events there, despite sending some $300 million in annual aid to the impoverished country on the Arabian peninsula.
Washington has sent a signal to Saleh that he must cede power by warning it may review its aid but experts say cutting assistance would only reduce U.S. influence further in a country crucial to American counter-terrorism efforts. It also would not likely change Saleh's calculus about whether to go.
The lack of options is a liability for the United States because al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, already at the top of U.S. security concerns, is expected to step farther into the spotlight after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.
Before Saleh's latest refusal to sign a power transfer deal on Sunday, White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan called Saleh to press him directly to formally accept the agreement. Otherwise, Brennan warned, Washington would be looking at other options, a U.S. official told Reuters.
It remains unclear whether the White House will follow through on the threat. When it comes to Yemen, U.S. influence is limited, experts agree.
"What options do we have to force a resolution? Almost zero," Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, told Reuters.
"I don't really think sanctions are really going to bring this to closure ... Certainly not threats."
The situation in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, has deteriorated markedly in recent days. Gunbattles between Saleh loyalists and opponents have killed more than 40 people since Monday.
U.S. DILEMMA
The U.S. dilemma in Yemen highlights a problem Washington faces globally in fighting militants with the help of problematic governments. While cries in the U.S. Congress to cut aid to Pakistan rose after it was learned bin Laden was hiding in that country for years, that too seems unlikely to happen.
The United States is providing Pakistan about $3 billion a year -- 10 times more aid than in Yemen -- for an alliance that at best appears half-hearted.
President Barack Obama acknowledged imperfect alliances in the Middle East during a speech on Wednesday before the British parliament.
"We must squarely acknowledge that, yes, we have enduring interests in the region -- to fight terror, sometimes with partners who may not be perfect," Obama said.
Earlier in the day he called on Saleh to "move immediately on his commitment to transfer power."
But Saleh, in a Reuters interview on Wednesday, said he would not bow to international "dictates" to step down.
Saleh, in power for three decades, was until recently seen as a crucial U.S. ally who allowed U.S. forces to conduct clandestine operations, including unmanned aerial drone strikes, against al Qaeda's local offshoot -- al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
But increasingly, Saleh is seen as a liability whose political weakness has been accompanied by deteriorating security, which has in turn undermined the fight against AQAP.
Continued violence Wednesday in Sanaa reinforced fears that Yemen could become a failed state like Somalia, and on the doorstep of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter. More than 40 percent of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day, while a third face chronic hunger.
"The current chaos does pose problems that we're concerned about -- this ongoing insecurity and the effect that it could have on AQAP's ability to interfere," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
"But that again just reinforces the fact that President Saleh should indeed sign this agreement and put Yemen on a path towards a political resolution," he said.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the political instability has distracted Saleh from fighting AQAP.
The group claimed responsibility for a failed Christmas Day attack in 2009 aboard a U.S. airliner and an attempt in October 2010 to blow up two U.S.-bound cargo planes with explosive parcels. Even before bin Laden's death, many senior U.S. officials saw AQAP as the top U.S. terrorism threat.
Critics have accused Obama of miscalculating in not adopting a tougher stance toward Saleh earlier on, relying instead on cautious statements that sought to balance concern about the violence with calls to the protesters to negotiate.
Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert, said the United States spent too long asking what a country without Saleh in power would look like and being paralyzed by fears of greater instability.
"The question that they needed to be asking is: What does Yemen look like if President Saleh continues to rule?" he said. "What the U.S. has realized is that what Yemen looks like if President Saleh remains in power is going to be very problematic for the U.S. and particularly for U.S. security concerns."
But when it comes to options in Yemen, Johnsen says there are no easy answers. "I think what's happening right now is beyond the realm of outside engineering," he said.
Evasions By Leader Add Chaos In Yemen
Source: New York Times, 26/05/2011
By ROBERT F. WORTH and LAURA KASINOF
WASHINGTON — The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has long been known as a devious and unpredictable ruler, famous for his brinkmanship.
Yet in recent days, as Yemen slips from political crisis into bloody civil conflict, Mr. Saleh’s evasions have become downright bizarre — exasperating kings, presidents, and even many of his own loyalists. Three times, he has promised to sign an agreement to transfer power in the face of vast street protests, only to back out at the last minute for reasons that seem trivial.
“Even by his own standards of what is rational, he is not being rational,” said one American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.
Last week, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, called Mr. Saleh and told him that if he signed the agreement to step down, President Obama would single out the Yemeni president as a positive example of change in his long-awaited speech on the Middle East, according to another administration official. The United States and Saudi Arabia have grown deeply worried about the political vacuum in Yemen, which has been a boon to Al Qaeda’s local affiliate.
Mr. Saleh promised he would sign. But he changed his mind again, this time in spectacular fashion. On Sunday, as diplomats waited for him to arrive at the signing ceremony in the Yemeni capital, Sana, hundreds of armed supporters of Mr. Saleh surrounded the building and trapped them for hours, preventing the ceremony from taking place.
Later, some of his subordinates signed the document, but Mr. Saleh refused, saying he wanted the political opposition — who had already signed it and had not been invited until late in the process — to be present.
On Wednesday, the capital echoed with exploding mortar shells for the third day in a row. Dozens of people have been killed; one local doctor said he had confirmed 54 dead on the opposition side alone.
The State Department ordered all eligible family members of United States government employees and some nonessential personnel to leave the country, according to a statement on its Web site.
The conflict pits Mr. Saleh’s security forces against his tribal rivals, the Ahmar family, whose members play leading roles in the political opposition. The two sides are struggling for control of important government buildings, including the Interior Ministry, which are near the Ahmar family compound.
The United States, which has worked closely with Yemen on counterterrorism, is now considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions against Mr. Saleh and his family members, to pressure him to sign the agreement.
American officials are finding they have little leverage with a president who seems to believe he can outfox his opponents — and perhaps secure a bailout from Saudi Arabia — despite the dire situation in his country, much of which is in open revolt and where several provinces are beyond his control.
To some Yemen observers, there is nothing new in all this except that Mr. Saleh is now in the global limelight. “He’s always survived by promising and pulling back,” said Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Princeton University who has lived in and written about Yemen. “He thinks he can cajole and bluff and threaten and wear people down until someone says ‘O.K., you win.’ ”
It is not clear whether Mr. Saleh realizes that the current crisis is far more serious than anything he has faced before. Yemen’s economy is collapsing, and its largest tribes are on the brink of armed rebellion. Mr. Saleh may soon run out of the money he needs to maintain his followers’ loyalty.
Mr. Saleh’s loyalists say he is driven by concern about Yemen’s future. Yemen’s political opposition, they say, has been a profoundly unreliable partner; it is fractious and ideologically diverse, and it lacks the experience necessary to run a government.
Yemen appears to be paying a tragic price for the struggle playing out between Mr. Saleh and his rivals. The nonviolent youth movement that inspired people across the country with its calls for democracy and an end to corruption has been overshadowed by a bloody street battle in the heart of the capital, one that now threatens to metastasize.
The conflict has deep roots.
“This power struggle between rival elite factions has been brewing for several years.” said Ginny Hill, head of the Yemen Forum at Chatham House, a research organization in London.
When the youth protest movement broke out in January, many of Mr. Saleh’s loyalists blamed it on the Ahmar family, especially on Hamid al-Ahmar, a telecom mogul. It is true that Mr. Ahmar has long cast himself as a rival to Mr. Saleh, and had proposed fomenting a revolution against the Yemeni president to United States diplomats in 2009.
But Mr. Ahmar played no part in the uprising that began in January. He has certainly tried to capitalize on it, using his vast wealth to provide food for many of the protesters camped out in a public square in Sana.
Yet many of the independent youth protesters do not trust the Ahmars to be Yemen’s next leaders. They say an Ahmar presidency would not bring the change they are calling for, namely the transformation of a system of tribal favoritism and patronage into a modern state.
“We deny that violence. We don’t want it to be like that. It doesn’t belong to us,” said Hamza al-Kamaly, a youth protest leader, by telephone from the Sana sit-in. “You can say we don’t belong to any side right now. We swear to God that we will never use weapons or hold arms.”
By ROBERT F. WORTH and LAURA KASINOF
WASHINGTON — The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has long been known as a devious and unpredictable ruler, famous for his brinkmanship.
Yet in recent days, as Yemen slips from political crisis into bloody civil conflict, Mr. Saleh’s evasions have become downright bizarre — exasperating kings, presidents, and even many of his own loyalists. Three times, he has promised to sign an agreement to transfer power in the face of vast street protests, only to back out at the last minute for reasons that seem trivial.
“Even by his own standards of what is rational, he is not being rational,” said one American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.
Last week, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, called Mr. Saleh and told him that if he signed the agreement to step down, President Obama would single out the Yemeni president as a positive example of change in his long-awaited speech on the Middle East, according to another administration official. The United States and Saudi Arabia have grown deeply worried about the political vacuum in Yemen, which has been a boon to Al Qaeda’s local affiliate.
Mr. Saleh promised he would sign. But he changed his mind again, this time in spectacular fashion. On Sunday, as diplomats waited for him to arrive at the signing ceremony in the Yemeni capital, Sana, hundreds of armed supporters of Mr. Saleh surrounded the building and trapped them for hours, preventing the ceremony from taking place.
Later, some of his subordinates signed the document, but Mr. Saleh refused, saying he wanted the political opposition — who had already signed it and had not been invited until late in the process — to be present.
On Wednesday, the capital echoed with exploding mortar shells for the third day in a row. Dozens of people have been killed; one local doctor said he had confirmed 54 dead on the opposition side alone.
The State Department ordered all eligible family members of United States government employees and some nonessential personnel to leave the country, according to a statement on its Web site.
The conflict pits Mr. Saleh’s security forces against his tribal rivals, the Ahmar family, whose members play leading roles in the political opposition. The two sides are struggling for control of important government buildings, including the Interior Ministry, which are near the Ahmar family compound.
The United States, which has worked closely with Yemen on counterterrorism, is now considering pushing for United Nations resolutions or even sanctions against Mr. Saleh and his family members, to pressure him to sign the agreement.
American officials are finding they have little leverage with a president who seems to believe he can outfox his opponents — and perhaps secure a bailout from Saudi Arabia — despite the dire situation in his country, much of which is in open revolt and where several provinces are beyond his control.
To some Yemen observers, there is nothing new in all this except that Mr. Saleh is now in the global limelight. “He’s always survived by promising and pulling back,” said Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Princeton University who has lived in and written about Yemen. “He thinks he can cajole and bluff and threaten and wear people down until someone says ‘O.K., you win.’ ”
It is not clear whether Mr. Saleh realizes that the current crisis is far more serious than anything he has faced before. Yemen’s economy is collapsing, and its largest tribes are on the brink of armed rebellion. Mr. Saleh may soon run out of the money he needs to maintain his followers’ loyalty.
Mr. Saleh’s loyalists say he is driven by concern about Yemen’s future. Yemen’s political opposition, they say, has been a profoundly unreliable partner; it is fractious and ideologically diverse, and it lacks the experience necessary to run a government.
Yemen appears to be paying a tragic price for the struggle playing out between Mr. Saleh and his rivals. The nonviolent youth movement that inspired people across the country with its calls for democracy and an end to corruption has been overshadowed by a bloody street battle in the heart of the capital, one that now threatens to metastasize.
The conflict has deep roots.
“This power struggle between rival elite factions has been brewing for several years.” said Ginny Hill, head of the Yemen Forum at Chatham House, a research organization in London.
When the youth protest movement broke out in January, many of Mr. Saleh’s loyalists blamed it on the Ahmar family, especially on Hamid al-Ahmar, a telecom mogul. It is true that Mr. Ahmar has long cast himself as a rival to Mr. Saleh, and had proposed fomenting a revolution against the Yemeni president to United States diplomats in 2009.
But Mr. Ahmar played no part in the uprising that began in January. He has certainly tried to capitalize on it, using his vast wealth to provide food for many of the protesters camped out in a public square in Sana.
Yet many of the independent youth protesters do not trust the Ahmars to be Yemen’s next leaders. They say an Ahmar presidency would not bring the change they are calling for, namely the transformation of a system of tribal favoritism and patronage into a modern state.
“We deny that violence. We don’t want it to be like that. It doesn’t belong to us,” said Hamza al-Kamaly, a youth protest leader, by telephone from the Sana sit-in. “You can say we don’t belong to any side right now. We swear to God that we will never use weapons or hold arms.”
US orders non-emergency staff to leave Yemen
Source: AFP, 26/05/2011
WASHINGTON — The United States announced it was ordering family members of US government employees and certain non-emergency personnel to leave Yemen.
The move by the State Department came amid calls for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down and as fierce fighting between security forces and dissident tribesmen forced the closure of the airport in Sanaa.
"The Department of State has ordered all eligible family members of US government employees as well as certain non-emergency personnel to depart Yemen," it said in a travel warning.
It warned Americans "of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest.
"The Department urges US citizens not to travel to Yemen. US citizens currently in Yemen should depart while commercial transportation is available," it said.
International calls for Saleh to quit mounted on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama earlier Wednesday repeated his call for Saleh to step aside as pitched battles were fought between tribal groups and security forces in Sanaa.
"We call upon President Saleh to move immediately on his commitment to transfer power," Obama said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.
The State Department said the threats to security were also due to activities of terrorist groups including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), suspected of plotting and attemping to carrying out attacks on US soil
"The US government remains concerned about possible attacks against US citizens, facilities, businesses, and perceived U.S. and Western interests," said the statement.
Saleh, who has been in power for 33 years, has since January faced protests calling for his departure from power, and recently refused to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council-sponsored accord that would have seen him cede power in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
In addition to months of anti-regime protests, the Al-Qaeda resurgence and now tribal battles with security forces, Yemen faces a southern secessionist movement and is battling a northern rebellion.
"We call upon President Saleh to move immediately on his commitment to transfer power," US President Barack Obama said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.
Germany's foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke echoed Obama's calls urging Saleh to accept a Gulf-brokered exit plan.
"We call on President Saleh not to seek to wait out the situation, and to seriously consider and accept the mediation offer made by the Gulf Cooperation Council," Peschke said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply troubled" by the violence and and called on all sides to find a peaceful solution.
Ban "is deeply troubled by the violent clashes in the centre of Sanaa between the security forces of the government and armed tribesmen that have left many people dead and wounded," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Nesirky said Ban "is concerned that this confrontation might further destabilise the situation and calls for an immediate end to the fighting".
Heavy clashes between dissident tribesmen and elite Republican Guard troops triggered the closure of Sanaa airport, aviation and tribal sources said.
The clashes pitted clansmen of the Arhab tribe of hardline cleric Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who faces US sanctions as a "terrorism financier," against Republican Guard troops under the command of Saleh's son Ahmed.
The ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Yemen has been seen as a key partner in the US "war on terror" but in recent days Washington has stepped up its pressure for a negotiated depature from office for Saleh, in power since 1978.
Fighting also raged between security forces and armed civilians loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar despitemediation efforts by impoverished Yemen's wealthy Gulf Arab neighbours.
Sheikh al-Ahmar, who heads the powerful Hashid tribal federation, fled from his home in the Al-Hasaba neighbourhood of north Sanaa after it came under missile attack, tribal sources said.
Three days of fighting have killed more than 44 people in the Yemeni capital, according to an AFP tally based on reports by medics, the government and tribesmen.
As the fighting raged, armed tribesmen from Amran, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Sanaa, headed towards the capital to join the battle against Saleh's forces, a tribal source told AFP.
Tribesmen had occupied the offices of the state news agency Saba and national airline Yemenia. They also tried to storm the interior ministry headquarters, witnesses and a high-ranking Yemeni official said.
The latest clashes came despite an appeal by Saleh late on Tuesday for supporters of the dissident tribal leader to "cease their aggression on security forces."
Clashes between security forces and Sheikh al-Ahmar's followers broke out on Monday after Saleh refused to sign a deal with the opposition sponsored by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that would see him leave office within 30 days in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.
The sheikh pledged his support in March to protesters who have been seeking to topple Saleh since late January.
One of the 10 sons of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, who was Saleh's main ally until his death, Ahmar is capable of rallying thousands of armed supporters, tribal sources say.
Tribal loyalties run deep in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, which has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands, roughly three for every citizen.
WASHINGTON — The United States announced it was ordering family members of US government employees and certain non-emergency personnel to leave Yemen.
The move by the State Department came amid calls for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down and as fierce fighting between security forces and dissident tribesmen forced the closure of the airport in Sanaa.
"The Department of State has ordered all eligible family members of US government employees as well as certain non-emergency personnel to depart Yemen," it said in a travel warning.
It warned Americans "of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest.
"The Department urges US citizens not to travel to Yemen. US citizens currently in Yemen should depart while commercial transportation is available," it said.
International calls for Saleh to quit mounted on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama earlier Wednesday repeated his call for Saleh to step aside as pitched battles were fought between tribal groups and security forces in Sanaa.
"We call upon President Saleh to move immediately on his commitment to transfer power," Obama said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.
The State Department said the threats to security were also due to activities of terrorist groups including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), suspected of plotting and attemping to carrying out attacks on US soil
"The US government remains concerned about possible attacks against US citizens, facilities, businesses, and perceived U.S. and Western interests," said the statement.
Saleh, who has been in power for 33 years, has since January faced protests calling for his departure from power, and recently refused to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council-sponsored accord that would have seen him cede power in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
In addition to months of anti-regime protests, the Al-Qaeda resurgence and now tribal battles with security forces, Yemen faces a southern secessionist movement and is battling a northern rebellion.
"We call upon President Saleh to move immediately on his commitment to transfer power," US President Barack Obama said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.
Germany's foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke echoed Obama's calls urging Saleh to accept a Gulf-brokered exit plan.
"We call on President Saleh not to seek to wait out the situation, and to seriously consider and accept the mediation offer made by the Gulf Cooperation Council," Peschke said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply troubled" by the violence and and called on all sides to find a peaceful solution.
Ban "is deeply troubled by the violent clashes in the centre of Sanaa between the security forces of the government and armed tribesmen that have left many people dead and wounded," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Nesirky said Ban "is concerned that this confrontation might further destabilise the situation and calls for an immediate end to the fighting".
Heavy clashes between dissident tribesmen and elite Republican Guard troops triggered the closure of Sanaa airport, aviation and tribal sources said.
The clashes pitted clansmen of the Arhab tribe of hardline cleric Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who faces US sanctions as a "terrorism financier," against Republican Guard troops under the command of Saleh's son Ahmed.
The ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Yemen has been seen as a key partner in the US "war on terror" but in recent days Washington has stepped up its pressure for a negotiated depature from office for Saleh, in power since 1978.
Fighting also raged between security forces and armed civilians loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar despitemediation efforts by impoverished Yemen's wealthy Gulf Arab neighbours.
Sheikh al-Ahmar, who heads the powerful Hashid tribal federation, fled from his home in the Al-Hasaba neighbourhood of north Sanaa after it came under missile attack, tribal sources said.
Three days of fighting have killed more than 44 people in the Yemeni capital, according to an AFP tally based on reports by medics, the government and tribesmen.
As the fighting raged, armed tribesmen from Amran, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Sanaa, headed towards the capital to join the battle against Saleh's forces, a tribal source told AFP.
Tribesmen had occupied the offices of the state news agency Saba and national airline Yemenia. They also tried to storm the interior ministry headquarters, witnesses and a high-ranking Yemeni official said.
The latest clashes came despite an appeal by Saleh late on Tuesday for supporters of the dissident tribal leader to "cease their aggression on security forces."
Clashes between security forces and Sheikh al-Ahmar's followers broke out on Monday after Saleh refused to sign a deal with the opposition sponsored by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that would see him leave office within 30 days in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.
The sheikh pledged his support in March to protesters who have been seeking to topple Saleh since late January.
One of the 10 sons of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, who was Saleh's main ally until his death, Ahmar is capable of rallying thousands of armed supporters, tribal sources say.
Tribal loyalties run deep in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, which has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands, roughly three for every citizen.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Third Day of Fierce Fighting in Yemen
Third Day of Fierce Fighting in Yemen
Source: New York Times,
By ROBERT F. WORTh,25/05/2011
WASHINGTON — Hopes for a peaceful settlement of Yemen’s political crisis receded further on Wednesday as intensifying street battles between government security forces and opposition tribesmen moved into a third day, leaving at least two dozen people dead and turning part of the Yemeni capital, Sana, into a war zone.
Government checkpoints and impromptu blockades erected by tribal fighters disrupted traffic around central Sana as clashes continued near several important government buildings in the Hasaba district. On Wednesday, opposition tribesmen controlled at least two ministries — trade and tourism — and a building that houses the state-run news agency, Saba.
Each side blamed the other for the outbreak of fighting. There were varying death tolls, some as high as 44, with more than 150 said to be wounded.
Many Yemenis fear the bloodshed could spiral into a broader war between supporters of Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and tribesmen allied with the powerful Ahmar family, whose house was at the center of the fighting.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Saleh accused the Ahmar family of trying to drag the country into civil war. In a later interview with Reuters, he said, “Yemen, I hope, will not be a failed state or another Somalia.”
The Ahmars are the leaders of Yemen’s most significant tribal confederation, known as Hashid. Hamid al-Ahmar, a telecom mogul, has long been a rival to the Yemeni president and is the most visible face of the political opposition that would inherit power if Mr. Saleh signs the agreement.
The fighting, which started Monday and includes the continued shelling of the Interior Ministry, threatens to spread into a broader conflict and displace the peaceful protests that began in Yemen shortly after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The Obama administration is struggling to avert that and is now weighing using the United Nations to pressure Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step aside.
Mr. Saleh refused Sunday, for the third time, to sign a deal to transfer power, despite enormous pressure from the United States and regional Arab leaders. At a news conference in London on Wednesday, President Obama reiterated his support for the plan, urging that it “be implemented immediately.”
If Mr. Saleh still refuses to sign, the United States could press for United Nations sanctions aimed at Mr. Saleh and his family members, who occupy key posts in Yemen’s military and intelligence services, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. On Sunday, the White House counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, warned the Yemeni president in a phone call that “if he doesn’t sign, we’re going to have to consider possible other steps,” the official said.
The United States and Yemen’s Arab neighbors are deeply concerned that the worsening political stalemate is allowing Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch — one of the terrorist group’s most dangerous and active affiliates — to operate more freely. Already, several provinces are outside the government’s control, and the economy is in free fall, with opposition-aligned tribes in eastern Yemen disrupting the flow of oil and electricity to the capital.
The Tuesday fighting was especially ominous because several prominent tribal sheiks came under fire as they arrived to help mediate the conflict, and at least two were reported killed. Yemen’s powerful tribes are well armed and their fighters are experienced. Tribal leaders from across Yemen had begun threatening to descend on the capital with thousands of warriors to strike back at Mr. Saleh, whom they blamed for the violence.
Another danger Yemen faces is intertribal conflict. “This is what Saleh would like to start — a war between the tribes,” said Muhammad Abdel Qadhi, a sheik in Mr. Saleh’s own tribe, the Sanhan.
The protesters, who mostly remained camped out on the street in the area of the capital they have renamed “Change Square” on Tuesday, say Mr. Saleh is deliberately fomenting war so that their uprising will no longer be seen as a peaceful one, and his own continued rule will seem necessary so as to maintain calm.
The sound of exploding mortar shells could be heard throughout the capital on Tuesday, witnesses said. Opposition tribesmen shelled the Interior Ministry and other buildings for hours, and set up barricades in streets nearby, witnesses and local news reports. Much of the capital was deserted as residents cowered inside.
Yemen’s Interior Ministry released a statement saying that 14 soldiers were killed Tuesday, along with a family of five civilians whose house was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. A prominent doctor, Abdul Wahab al-Anesi, said he had learned of 24 deaths of civilians and tribesmen from several hospitals in the city, but that could not be confirmed independently.
A group of tribal sheiks who arrived at the Ahmar family compound to mediate a cease-fire issued a statement to local reporters saying they had come under fire almost immediately after arriving, despite repeated efforts to coordinate by phone with the president’s loyalists. “We decided to stop the mediation and hold the president fully responsible,” the statement said.
So far, the high-ranking generals who defected to the opposition in March — with their armed forces — have not become involved. If that changes, the conflict could quickly become far bloodier, possibly spiraling into a full-scale civil war.
A political settlement has been elusive, in part, because Mr. Saleh’s loyalists and the opposition deeply distrust each other. American and Arab diplomats have focused on urging Mr. Saleh to sign the agreement, under which he would transfer power in exchange for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family members.
But even if he does so, the two sides must then work out the details of a transition, a process that could be prolonged and fraught with tension. The 30-day timetable for Mr. Saleh to leave office does not start until they complete the agreement.
Nasser Arrabyee contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen, and Laura Kasinof and Helene Cooper from Washington.
Source: New York Times,
By ROBERT F. WORTh,25/05/2011
WASHINGTON — Hopes for a peaceful settlement of Yemen’s political crisis receded further on Wednesday as intensifying street battles between government security forces and opposition tribesmen moved into a third day, leaving at least two dozen people dead and turning part of the Yemeni capital, Sana, into a war zone.
Government checkpoints and impromptu blockades erected by tribal fighters disrupted traffic around central Sana as clashes continued near several important government buildings in the Hasaba district. On Wednesday, opposition tribesmen controlled at least two ministries — trade and tourism — and a building that houses the state-run news agency, Saba.
Each side blamed the other for the outbreak of fighting. There were varying death tolls, some as high as 44, with more than 150 said to be wounded.
Many Yemenis fear the bloodshed could spiral into a broader war between supporters of Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and tribesmen allied with the powerful Ahmar family, whose house was at the center of the fighting.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Saleh accused the Ahmar family of trying to drag the country into civil war. In a later interview with Reuters, he said, “Yemen, I hope, will not be a failed state or another Somalia.”
The Ahmars are the leaders of Yemen’s most significant tribal confederation, known as Hashid. Hamid al-Ahmar, a telecom mogul, has long been a rival to the Yemeni president and is the most visible face of the political opposition that would inherit power if Mr. Saleh signs the agreement.
The fighting, which started Monday and includes the continued shelling of the Interior Ministry, threatens to spread into a broader conflict and displace the peaceful protests that began in Yemen shortly after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The Obama administration is struggling to avert that and is now weighing using the United Nations to pressure Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step aside.
Mr. Saleh refused Sunday, for the third time, to sign a deal to transfer power, despite enormous pressure from the United States and regional Arab leaders. At a news conference in London on Wednesday, President Obama reiterated his support for the plan, urging that it “be implemented immediately.”
If Mr. Saleh still refuses to sign, the United States could press for United Nations sanctions aimed at Mr. Saleh and his family members, who occupy key posts in Yemen’s military and intelligence services, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. On Sunday, the White House counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, warned the Yemeni president in a phone call that “if he doesn’t sign, we’re going to have to consider possible other steps,” the official said.
The United States and Yemen’s Arab neighbors are deeply concerned that the worsening political stalemate is allowing Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch — one of the terrorist group’s most dangerous and active affiliates — to operate more freely. Already, several provinces are outside the government’s control, and the economy is in free fall, with opposition-aligned tribes in eastern Yemen disrupting the flow of oil and electricity to the capital.
The Tuesday fighting was especially ominous because several prominent tribal sheiks came under fire as they arrived to help mediate the conflict, and at least two were reported killed. Yemen’s powerful tribes are well armed and their fighters are experienced. Tribal leaders from across Yemen had begun threatening to descend on the capital with thousands of warriors to strike back at Mr. Saleh, whom they blamed for the violence.
Another danger Yemen faces is intertribal conflict. “This is what Saleh would like to start — a war between the tribes,” said Muhammad Abdel Qadhi, a sheik in Mr. Saleh’s own tribe, the Sanhan.
The protesters, who mostly remained camped out on the street in the area of the capital they have renamed “Change Square” on Tuesday, say Mr. Saleh is deliberately fomenting war so that their uprising will no longer be seen as a peaceful one, and his own continued rule will seem necessary so as to maintain calm.
The sound of exploding mortar shells could be heard throughout the capital on Tuesday, witnesses said. Opposition tribesmen shelled the Interior Ministry and other buildings for hours, and set up barricades in streets nearby, witnesses and local news reports. Much of the capital was deserted as residents cowered inside.
Yemen’s Interior Ministry released a statement saying that 14 soldiers were killed Tuesday, along with a family of five civilians whose house was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. A prominent doctor, Abdul Wahab al-Anesi, said he had learned of 24 deaths of civilians and tribesmen from several hospitals in the city, but that could not be confirmed independently.
A group of tribal sheiks who arrived at the Ahmar family compound to mediate a cease-fire issued a statement to local reporters saying they had come under fire almost immediately after arriving, despite repeated efforts to coordinate by phone with the president’s loyalists. “We decided to stop the mediation and hold the president fully responsible,” the statement said.
So far, the high-ranking generals who defected to the opposition in March — with their armed forces — have not become involved. If that changes, the conflict could quickly become far bloodier, possibly spiraling into a full-scale civil war.
A political settlement has been elusive, in part, because Mr. Saleh’s loyalists and the opposition deeply distrust each other. American and Arab diplomats have focused on urging Mr. Saleh to sign the agreement, under which he would transfer power in exchange for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family members.
But even if he does so, the two sides must then work out the details of a transition, a process that could be prolonged and fraught with tension. The 30-day timetable for Mr. Saleh to leave office does not start until they complete the agreement.
Nasser Arrabyee contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen, and Laura Kasinof and Helene Cooper from Washington.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Small war in Yemen erupts
By Nasser Arrabyee/24/05/2011
The “peaceful” revolution has turned to a small war in Yemen. Now, it might turn to an all-out civil war overnight.
It started from the Palace of the opposition tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar and his nine brothers in Al Hasaba area in the Yemeni capital Sanaá only one day after the President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign a US-backed and Saudi-led GCC deal for peaceful transfer of power.
Heavy and medium-sized weapons were used by the tribesmen of Al Ahmar who leads the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashed, to storm and occupy all the government institutions around the Palace such as the ministry of interior, ministry of trade, headquarters of the ruling party, and state-run news agency Saba.
This news agency, which feeds all official media with the news, is almost not working anymore after the upper three of the six-layer building were shelled with RPGs from the barricades and trenches around Al Ahmar’s Palace which is only less than 500 meters away on Monday.
Only one journalist was injured out of some 100 who were blockaded for more than eight hours in the basement of the building.
Al Ahmar accused Saleh’s forces of turning all these official buildings into military barracks to target them in their Palace.
The very beginning of this small but very dangerous war was early morning on Monday May 23rd, 2011, when Saleh’s security forces clashed with Al-Ahmar militants who came to barricade in a public school close to the Palace, but already occupied by security forces. Al Ahmar said the school was turned to a store of weapons.
The war intensified all the day of Tuesday in the area of Al Hasab around Al Ahmar Palace where hundreds of tribal leaders came to mediate between Hamid Al Ahmar and President Saleh. At least three tribesmen were killed at the outer gate of the
Palace by a missile before mediators left empty-handed early afternoon Tuesday.
The chairman of intelligence Ghalib Al Kamish was among the mediators who failed to contain the deteriorating situation.
The leader of the Yemen second influential tribe, Bakil, Shiekh Naji Al Shayif, started a second mediation very late Tuesday in a bid to prevent an all-out war.
The defected army of general Ali Muhsen has not interfered yet, but it is expected to protect the enforcement tribesmen who might come from Khamer, the stronghold of Al Ahmar’s tribes in Amran province north of the capital Sanaa in case the Saleh’s republican guards try to prevent them from entering Sanaá.
These developments came after President Saleh refused Sunday in the last minute to sign the power transfer deal after five officials from his party and five from opposition parties signed it but in different places.
Thousands of Saleh supporters took to the streets of the capital Sanaá on Sunday May 22nd, 2011,and started to block roads almost everywhere expressing their refusal to signing.
They blocked even the high ways between the cities and they even surrounded the Emirates embassy in Sanáa to prevent mediation members who included the GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani and Gulf ambassadors , US,UK, and EU ambassadors who were supposed to go to Presidential Palace to have Saleh sign.
They were evacuated by a military helicopter which took them to the Presidential office where only five officials from Saleh party signed but not Saleh.
The opposition signed the deal a day earlier.Saleh wanted the opposition leaders to come to him. “ How can we work with them for one month? over phone?, before whom they will take the oath,” Saleh wondered.
“ If they want a civil war, we will confront them with all means and they will be held responsible for the bloodshed,” He added.
After GCC chief returned to the Saudi capital, the GCC ministers who were in urgent meeting on Yemen, called the conflicting parties to be more patient to avoid a war.
The Saudi Arabia, who leads the mediation, however, urged Saleh to sign as soon as possible and said the GCC chief would come back to Sanaá for completing his task. Saleh is expected to sign on Sunday May 29th, 2011, if the current small war is contained.
US and EU urged Saleh to fulfill his promises by signing and implementing the deal and handing over the power. After what happened Sunday, the Americans ans Europeans hinted to other options including sanctions if he Saleh did hand over the power peacefully.
A Yemeni journalist was shot with a bullet in his feet when armed tribesmen belonging to influential tribal leader opposing the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, tried to storm government buildings nearby the palace of the tribal leader.
The spokesman of Al Ahmar’s Palace , Abdul Al Kawee Al Kaisi, said however, the militants of Al Ahmar only defended themselves when Saleh’s army and security forces tried to storm Al Ahmar’s Palace in Al Hasaba area, north of the capital Sanaá.
A source close to Al Ahmar’s family said, the militants of Al Ahmar were very angry when they saw Saleh’s supporters transfer a lot of weapons to the school of Al Ramah, which is not far from the Al Ahmar’s Palace.
“They realized that bringing such weapons to this school is only to target them,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“What happened today, came after a long series of provocative acts by the Saleh’s Balatega , thugs.”
“The sheikh supporters want only to defend themselves, they do not want to attack any one,” the source defended.
The billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and funding the 4-month anti-Saleh protests, has been grooming himself for presidency since 2006 when he publically called for a revolution against President Saleh after his candidate Faisal bin Shamlan lost elections and Saleh won.
However, some of the anti-Saleh protesters, look at what happened nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, as only conspiracy from Saleh and his supporters to divert the attention from the popular uprising .
“What’s happening is just a play from Saleh to portray the conflict as a conflict between him and Al Ahmar’s family and not between him and the whole people,” said Ameen Arrabyee, one of the leading protesters in sit-in square at the gate of university.
The “peaceful” revolution has turned to a small war in Yemen. Now, it might turn to an all-out civil war overnight.
It started from the Palace of the opposition tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar and his nine brothers in Al Hasaba area in the Yemeni capital Sanaá only one day after the President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign a US-backed and Saudi-led GCC deal for peaceful transfer of power.
Heavy and medium-sized weapons were used by the tribesmen of Al Ahmar who leads the Yemen most influential tribe, Hashed, to storm and occupy all the government institutions around the Palace such as the ministry of interior, ministry of trade, headquarters of the ruling party, and state-run news agency Saba.
This news agency, which feeds all official media with the news, is almost not working anymore after the upper three of the six-layer building were shelled with RPGs from the barricades and trenches around Al Ahmar’s Palace which is only less than 500 meters away on Monday.
Only one journalist was injured out of some 100 who were blockaded for more than eight hours in the basement of the building.
Al Ahmar accused Saleh’s forces of turning all these official buildings into military barracks to target them in their Palace.
The very beginning of this small but very dangerous war was early morning on Monday May 23rd, 2011, when Saleh’s security forces clashed with Al-Ahmar militants who came to barricade in a public school close to the Palace, but already occupied by security forces. Al Ahmar said the school was turned to a store of weapons.
The war intensified all the day of Tuesday in the area of Al Hasab around Al Ahmar Palace where hundreds of tribal leaders came to mediate between Hamid Al Ahmar and President Saleh. At least three tribesmen were killed at the outer gate of the
Palace by a missile before mediators left empty-handed early afternoon Tuesday.
The chairman of intelligence Ghalib Al Kamish was among the mediators who failed to contain the deteriorating situation.
The leader of the Yemen second influential tribe, Bakil, Shiekh Naji Al Shayif, started a second mediation very late Tuesday in a bid to prevent an all-out war.
The defected army of general Ali Muhsen has not interfered yet, but it is expected to protect the enforcement tribesmen who might come from Khamer, the stronghold of Al Ahmar’s tribes in Amran province north of the capital Sanaa in case the Saleh’s republican guards try to prevent them from entering Sanaá.
These developments came after President Saleh refused Sunday in the last minute to sign the power transfer deal after five officials from his party and five from opposition parties signed it but in different places.
Thousands of Saleh supporters took to the streets of the capital Sanaá on Sunday May 22nd, 2011,and started to block roads almost everywhere expressing their refusal to signing.
They blocked even the high ways between the cities and they even surrounded the Emirates embassy in Sanáa to prevent mediation members who included the GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani and Gulf ambassadors , US,UK, and EU ambassadors who were supposed to go to Presidential Palace to have Saleh sign.
They were evacuated by a military helicopter which took them to the Presidential office where only five officials from Saleh party signed but not Saleh.
The opposition signed the deal a day earlier.Saleh wanted the opposition leaders to come to him. “ How can we work with them for one month? over phone?, before whom they will take the oath,” Saleh wondered.
“ If they want a civil war, we will confront them with all means and they will be held responsible for the bloodshed,” He added.
After GCC chief returned to the Saudi capital, the GCC ministers who were in urgent meeting on Yemen, called the conflicting parties to be more patient to avoid a war.
The Saudi Arabia, who leads the mediation, however, urged Saleh to sign as soon as possible and said the GCC chief would come back to Sanaá for completing his task. Saleh is expected to sign on Sunday May 29th, 2011, if the current small war is contained.
US and EU urged Saleh to fulfill his promises by signing and implementing the deal and handing over the power. After what happened Sunday, the Americans ans Europeans hinted to other options including sanctions if he Saleh did hand over the power peacefully.
A Yemeni journalist was shot with a bullet in his feet when armed tribesmen belonging to influential tribal leader opposing the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, tried to storm government buildings nearby the palace of the tribal leader.
The spokesman of Al Ahmar’s Palace , Abdul Al Kawee Al Kaisi, said however, the militants of Al Ahmar only defended themselves when Saleh’s army and security forces tried to storm Al Ahmar’s Palace in Al Hasaba area, north of the capital Sanaá.
A source close to Al Ahmar’s family said, the militants of Al Ahmar were very angry when they saw Saleh’s supporters transfer a lot of weapons to the school of Al Ramah, which is not far from the Al Ahmar’s Palace.
“They realized that bringing such weapons to this school is only to target them,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“What happened today, came after a long series of provocative acts by the Saleh’s Balatega , thugs.”
“The sheikh supporters want only to defend themselves, they do not want to attack any one,” the source defended.
The billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and funding the 4-month anti-Saleh protests, has been grooming himself for presidency since 2006 when he publically called for a revolution against President Saleh after his candidate Faisal bin Shamlan lost elections and Saleh won.
However, some of the anti-Saleh protesters, look at what happened nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, as only conspiracy from Saleh and his supporters to divert the attention from the popular uprising .
“What’s happening is just a play from Saleh to portray the conflict as a conflict between him and Al Ahmar’s family and not between him and the whole people,” said Ameen Arrabyee, one of the leading protesters in sit-in square at the gate of university.
Monday, 23 May 2011
U.S., E.U. and Arab allies review support for Yemen in bid to resolve escalating crisis
U.S., E.U. and Arab allies review support for Yemen in bid to resolve escalating crisis
Source: Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung,24/05/2011
The Obama administration and its Arab and European allies are reassessing their military and economic support for Yemen in a desperate search for ways to force President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s resignation before civil war erupts.
In a conversation Sunday just before Saleh refused a third successive peace deal negotiated by Persian Gulf states, White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan told the Yemeni president “that if he doesn’t sign, we’re going to have to consider possible other steps,” a senior administration official said.
One option, U.S. and Arab officials said, would be to bring Yemen before the U.N. Security Council for unspecified sanctions. On Monday, the European Union called on Saleh to “transfer power now” and warned that member states “will review their policies toward Yemen.”
But even as they considered new steps to resolve the escalating crisis in Yemen, which is in its third month, officials acknowledged that any course of action they might pursue poses risks in this strategically located country that is on the brink of economic collapse and is home to the world’s most powerful and active branch of al-Qaeda.
“The situation is very delicate now,” said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss fast-breaking events on the ground. Saleh, he said, “is drawing this out at his own peril.”
In the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, gun battles raged Monday between government forces and fighters loyal to powerful tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar, who has sided with the growing opposition movement that has demanded an end to Saleh’s 32-year-long rule, wire services reported.
The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa announced it would close its consular section Tuesday and Wednesday “due to the fluid security situation” and would provide emergency services only for U.S. citizens.
“We’re taking one day at a time, but we’re not at this point relying on a change of heart on the part of Saleh,” the administration official said. “We need to now reevaluate with our partners the next step we can take that will try to resolve this.”
A senior Arab official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “Right now, there is nothing the outside world can do except saying, ‘Sign.’ ”
But while donors may be hesitant about cutting security ties and the economic assistance that keeps Yemen afloat, he said, “you can cut the stuff that goes to him as president — not directly into his pocket, but presidents have expenses. They live in houses, they have cars and salaries to pay.”
The Arab official counseled a bit more patience, but he agreed that time was running out. “It’s going to be impossible for [Yemen] to continue without the risk of this disintegrating. In which case, all bets are off,” he said.
Yemen, an ostensible U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, has been one of the most vexing problems for the Obama administration during a season of widespread popular revolts throughout the Arab world.
Yemen, which received more than $300 million in U.S. security and economic aid last year, allows U.S. Special Operations forces to train its counterterrorism forces and gather intelligence on its soil against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). U.S. fighter jets have launched attacks on AQAP targets in Yemen, and this month marked the first time since 2002 that the U.S. military launched a drone strike there.
Source: Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung,24/05/2011
The Obama administration and its Arab and European allies are reassessing their military and economic support for Yemen in a desperate search for ways to force President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s resignation before civil war erupts.
In a conversation Sunday just before Saleh refused a third successive peace deal negotiated by Persian Gulf states, White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan told the Yemeni president “that if he doesn’t sign, we’re going to have to consider possible other steps,” a senior administration official said.
One option, U.S. and Arab officials said, would be to bring Yemen before the U.N. Security Council for unspecified sanctions. On Monday, the European Union called on Saleh to “transfer power now” and warned that member states “will review their policies toward Yemen.”
But even as they considered new steps to resolve the escalating crisis in Yemen, which is in its third month, officials acknowledged that any course of action they might pursue poses risks in this strategically located country that is on the brink of economic collapse and is home to the world’s most powerful and active branch of al-Qaeda.
“The situation is very delicate now,” said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss fast-breaking events on the ground. Saleh, he said, “is drawing this out at his own peril.”
In the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, gun battles raged Monday between government forces and fighters loyal to powerful tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar, who has sided with the growing opposition movement that has demanded an end to Saleh’s 32-year-long rule, wire services reported.
The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa announced it would close its consular section Tuesday and Wednesday “due to the fluid security situation” and would provide emergency services only for U.S. citizens.
“We’re taking one day at a time, but we’re not at this point relying on a change of heart on the part of Saleh,” the administration official said. “We need to now reevaluate with our partners the next step we can take that will try to resolve this.”
A senior Arab official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “Right now, there is nothing the outside world can do except saying, ‘Sign.’ ”
But while donors may be hesitant about cutting security ties and the economic assistance that keeps Yemen afloat, he said, “you can cut the stuff that goes to him as president — not directly into his pocket, but presidents have expenses. They live in houses, they have cars and salaries to pay.”
The Arab official counseled a bit more patience, but he agreed that time was running out. “It’s going to be impossible for [Yemen] to continue without the risk of this disintegrating. In which case, all bets are off,” he said.
Yemen, an ostensible U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, has been one of the most vexing problems for the Obama administration during a season of widespread popular revolts throughout the Arab world.
Yemen, which received more than $300 million in U.S. security and economic aid last year, allows U.S. Special Operations forces to train its counterterrorism forces and gather intelligence on its soil against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). U.S. fighter jets have launched attacks on AQAP targets in Yemen, and this month marked the first time since 2002 that the U.S. military launched a drone strike there.