Tribesmen cleaned town from Al Qaeda in fear of US airstrikes

By Nasser Arrabyee/27/07/2011

Armed tribesmen forced Al Qaeda fighters to leave a southern Yemeni town in a peaceful way, said tribal leaders Wednesday.

Tens of armed young tribesmen stormed the houses of Al Qaeda fighters inside the city of Lawdar, in the volatile southern province of Abyan, forcing them to leave immediately, said the local tribal leader, Tawfik Al Junaidi.

“No single fighter is left now in our city except for some children who were deceived by Al Qaeda,” Al Junaidi said “ But we coordinated with their parents to help their sons to return to normal life.”

All the children who were recruited by Al Qaeda in the mosques and Quran schools were less than 14 years old.

In coordination with the parents , the tribesmen prevented the children from going with Al Qaeda fighters.

Lawdar, whose population is estimated at 120,000, is about 120 km north of Zinjubar which was declared as an Islamic Emirate late last May, but the government troops and tribesmen also started earlier this week to tighten the noose for liberating the coastal city on the Gulf of Aden.

The local residents said Al Qaeda fighters walked out from the city Tuesday and Wednesday to the neighboring mountains in the eastern direction of Shabwah province.

The tribesmen from Lawdar and the areas around it like Modyah and Wadia, gave the fighters an ultimatum of 48 hours to leave the mountains of their areas.

“We would fight them if they stay in our mountains,” said Al Junaidi over phone from Lawdar. “We held a big meeting today here in Lawdar and we decided to this fight them if they do not leave our areas alt permanently .”

The leader of Al Qaeda fighters in Lawdar was identified by the tribesmen as Adeeb Al Nakhi.
Several checkpoints were made in and around the city to prevent any possible return of the Al Qaeda operatives.

The local resident say they got rid of Al Qaeda now because they are afraid of any possible war and airstrikes like those which hit Zinjubar and displaced about 100,000 people from their houses.

“ At the beginning we thought that they were preachers and they serve the religion, but after what happened in Ja’ar and Zinjubar, we realized that they are against the religion,” said Al Junaidi.

And Khaled Al Abed from Modyah, said the Yemeni tribesmen are not like Afghan tribesmen of Bashtoon.

“ We want to protect ourselves from the American airstrikes, this is why we united now against Al Qaeda,” said Al Abed

Brigadier General, Salem Cotn called the tribesmen and all the society to stand against terrorism and protect their country and their religion from the evil of terrorists.

“ The real Jihad is to fight these evils, the real Jihad is to protect our Islam from these terrorists,” said commander Cotn who is supervising the military operations against Al Qaeda in south.

“Islam is against all forms of terrorism,” he said.