By Nasser Arrabyee,30/03/2012
Four Al Qaeda operatives were killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle moving between two Al Qaeda strongholds in the southern province of Shabwa, said sources in AlQaeda-controlled hospital late Friday.
"Only four dead bodies arrived here the hospital of Azzan, " the sources said.
" It is very difficult who these bodies are, they are very black."
Other sources said the top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAQ), Nasser Al Wahaishi, and Saad Bin Atef, and a Syrian expert on making bombs and explosives, were among those who were in the car.
Meanwhile, armed tribesmen loyal to the Islamist party, Islah, are preparing to control the international airport of the Yemeni capital Sana'a, said local sources Friday.
The militants of Islah, in cooperation with Al Qaeda fighters in Arhab area, about 30 km north of Sanaa,started early Friday to attack the 63 brigade (republican guards) with heavy, medium and small size weapons, said the local source from Arhab,
Four armed vehicles with dozens of militants are positioning now in the area of Asda,about 500 meters away from the 63 brigade, in addition to similar other positions from two directions of Assama mountain which overlooks the airport, the sources said.
Arhab is known as a safe haven for Al Qaeda activities since 2007. Mohammed Al Hanek, middle level Al Qaeda leader, was killed earlier this month in Zinjubar, Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate, in the southern province of Abyan.
The tribal leader Mansour Al Hanek, leader of the Islamist party, Islah in Arhab, is the commander of the attacking militants.
Two relatives of Mansour Al Hanek were killed in different special operations against Al Qaeda in Arhab over the last few years.
The cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani, accused by US and UN of supporting global terrorism, is originally from Arhab, and where has been hiding since March last year.
The sources also said that fighters in Arhab are not only from the local people but also they are coming from Mareb, Al Jawf, Shabwa and other areas in Sanaa province like Nehm.
Earlier this week, an official report submitted to the Parliament warned from the activity of sleeping cells of Al Qaeda in Arhab and Aden and Lahj.
A total of 1150 soldiers were killed and 4350 others injured in different operations against army and security implemented by Al Qaeda and militants of Islah since January 2011, according to official reports.
Al Qaeda kills two tribesmen
Two tribesmen were shot dead by gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda fighters in the southern city of Aden, said eyewitnesses Friday.
Khaled Jamal Mohammed Ashal, Abdullah Ahmed Nasser Ashal were killed immediately after they finished the Friday sermons in Shaikh Othman area, in Aden city, the witnesses said.
The two dead men were working as bodyguards with the vice chairman of the Islamist party in Abyan province, Mohammed Hussein Ashal, brother of the member of parliament Ali Hussein Ashal.
Ashal family has been in conflict with Al Qaeda militants for about two years .
Ashal mobilized tribesmen from Mudia and Lawdar in Abyan province to fight what they always call " Saleh-made" Al Qaeda, in a reference to the former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The family of Ashal, majority of them in the Islamist party Islah, always argue that there is no Al Qaeda in Yemen, and it is only Saleh who makes it to use it as a scarecrow to get money from the west.
Al Qaeda, a real and increasing threat in Yemen, expanded a lot during the last year's protests.
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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Friday, 30 March 2012
AQAP top leader might have been killed in the US drone attack
By Nasser Arrabyee,30/03/2012
Four Al Qaeda operatives were killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle moving between two Al Qaeda strongholds in the southern province of Shabwa, said sources in AlQaeda-controlled hospital late Friday.
"Only four dead bodies arrived here the hospital of Azzan, " the sources said.
" It is very difficult who these bodies are, they are very black."
Other sources said the top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAQ), Nasser Al Wahaishi, and Saad Bin Atef, and a Syrian expert on making bombs and explosives, were among those who were in the car.
The top leader of Al Qaeda
Armed tribesmen loyal to the Islamist party, Islah, are preparing to control the international airport of the Yemeni capital Sana'a, said local sources Friday.
The militants of Islah, in cooperation with Al Qaeda fighters in Arhab area, about 30 km north of Sanaa,started early Friday to attack the 63 brigade (republican guards) with heavy, medium and small size weapons, said the local source from Arhab,
Four armed vehicles with dozens of militants are positioning now in the area of Asda,about 500 meters away from the 63 brigade, in addition to similar other positions from two directions of Assama mountain which overlooks the airport, the sources said.
Arhab is known as a safe haven for Al Qaeda activities since 2007. Mohammed Al Hanek, middle level Al Qaeda leader, was killed earlier this month in Zinjubar, Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate, in the southern province of Abyan.
The tribal leader Mansour Al Hanek, leader of the Islamist party, Islah in Arhab, is the commander of the attacking militants.
Two relatives of Mansour Al Hanek were killed in different special operations against Al Qaeda in Arhab over the last few years.
The cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani, accused by US and UN of supporting global terrorism, is originally from Arhab, and where has been hiding since March last year.
The sources also said that fighters in Arhab are not only from the local people but also they are coming from Mareb, Al Jawf, Shabwa and other areas in Sanaa province like Nehm.
Earlier this week, an official report submitted to the Parliament warned from the activity of sleeping cells of Al Qaeda in Arhab and Aden and Lahj.
A total of 1150 soldiers were killed and 4350 others injured in different operations against army and security implemented by Al Qaeda and militants of Islah since January 2011, according to official reports.
Al Qaeda kills two tribesmen
Two tribesmen were shot dead by gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda fighters in the southern city of Aden, said eyewitnesses Friday.
Khaled Jamal Mohammed Ashal, Abdullah Ahmed Nasser Ashal were killed immediately after they finished the Friday sermons in Shaikh Othman area, in Aden city, the witnesses said.
The two dead men were working as bodyguards with the vice chairman of the Islamist party in Abyan province, Mohammed Hussein Ashal, brother of the member of parliament Ali Hussein Ashal.
Ashal family has been in conflict with Al Qaeda militants for about two years .
Ashal mobilized tribesmen from Mudia and Lawdar in Abyan province to fight what they always call " Saleh-made" Al Qaeda, in a reference to the former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The family of Ashal, majority of them in the Islamist party Islah, always argue that there is no Al Qaeda in Yemen, and it is only Saleh who makes it to use it as a scarecrow to get money from the west.
Al Qaeda, a real and increasing threat in Yemen, expanded a lot during the last year's protests.
Four Al Qaeda operatives were killed in a US drone attack on a vehicle moving between two Al Qaeda strongholds in the southern province of Shabwa, said sources in AlQaeda-controlled hospital late Friday.
"Only four dead bodies arrived here the hospital of Azzan, " the sources said.
" It is very difficult who these bodies are, they are very black."
Other sources said the top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAQ), Nasser Al Wahaishi, and Saad Bin Atef, and a Syrian expert on making bombs and explosives, were among those who were in the car.
The top leader of Al Qaeda
Armed tribesmen loyal to the Islamist party, Islah, are preparing to control the international airport of the Yemeni capital Sana'a, said local sources Friday.
The militants of Islah, in cooperation with Al Qaeda fighters in Arhab area, about 30 km north of Sanaa,started early Friday to attack the 63 brigade (republican guards) with heavy, medium and small size weapons, said the local source from Arhab,
Four armed vehicles with dozens of militants are positioning now in the area of Asda,about 500 meters away from the 63 brigade, in addition to similar other positions from two directions of Assama mountain which overlooks the airport, the sources said.
Arhab is known as a safe haven for Al Qaeda activities since 2007. Mohammed Al Hanek, middle level Al Qaeda leader, was killed earlier this month in Zinjubar, Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate, in the southern province of Abyan.
The tribal leader Mansour Al Hanek, leader of the Islamist party, Islah in Arhab, is the commander of the attacking militants.
Two relatives of Mansour Al Hanek were killed in different special operations against Al Qaeda in Arhab over the last few years.
The cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani, accused by US and UN of supporting global terrorism, is originally from Arhab, and where has been hiding since March last year.
The sources also said that fighters in Arhab are not only from the local people but also they are coming from Mareb, Al Jawf, Shabwa and other areas in Sanaa province like Nehm.
Earlier this week, an official report submitted to the Parliament warned from the activity of sleeping cells of Al Qaeda in Arhab and Aden and Lahj.
A total of 1150 soldiers were killed and 4350 others injured in different operations against army and security implemented by Al Qaeda and militants of Islah since January 2011, according to official reports.
Al Qaeda kills two tribesmen
Two tribesmen were shot dead by gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda fighters in the southern city of Aden, said eyewitnesses Friday.
Khaled Jamal Mohammed Ashal, Abdullah Ahmed Nasser Ashal were killed immediately after they finished the Friday sermons in Shaikh Othman area, in Aden city, the witnesses said.
The two dead men were working as bodyguards with the vice chairman of the Islamist party in Abyan province, Mohammed Hussein Ashal, brother of the member of parliament Ali Hussein Ashal.
Ashal family has been in conflict with Al Qaeda militants for about two years .
Ashal mobilized tribesmen from Mudia and Lawdar in Abyan province to fight what they always call " Saleh-made" Al Qaeda, in a reference to the former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The family of Ashal, majority of them in the Islamist party Islah, always argue that there is no Al Qaeda in Yemen, and it is only Saleh who makes it to use it as a scarecrow to get money from the west.
Al Qaeda, a real and increasing threat in Yemen, expanded a lot during the last year's protests.
Al Qaeda kills two tribesmen in Aden, the south of Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee,30/03/2012
Two tribesmen were shot dead by gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda fighters in the southern city of Aden, said eyewitnesses Friday.
Khaled Jamal Mohammed Ashal, Abdullah Ahmed Nasser Ashal were killed immediately after they finished the Friday sermons in Shaikh Othman area, in Aden city, the witnesses said.
The two dead men were working as bodyguards with the vice chairman of the Islamist party in Abyan province, Mohammed Hussein Ashal, brother of the member of parliament Ali Hussein Ashal.
Ashal family has been in conflict with Al Qaeda militants for about two years .
Ashal mobilized tribesmen from Mudia and Lawdar in Abyan province to fight what they always call " Saleh-made" Al Qaeda, in a reference to the former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The family of Ashal, majority of them in the Islamist party Islah, always argue that there is no Al Qaeda in Yemen, and it is only Saleh who makes it to use it as a scarecrow to get money from the west.
Al Qaeda, a real and increasing threat in Yemen, expanded a lot during the last year's protests.
Two tribesmen were shot dead by gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda fighters in the southern city of Aden, said eyewitnesses Friday.
Khaled Jamal Mohammed Ashal, Abdullah Ahmed Nasser Ashal were killed immediately after they finished the Friday sermons in Shaikh Othman area, in Aden city, the witnesses said.
The two dead men were working as bodyguards with the vice chairman of the Islamist party in Abyan province, Mohammed Hussein Ashal, brother of the member of parliament Ali Hussein Ashal.
Ashal family has been in conflict with Al Qaeda militants for about two years .
Ashal mobilized tribesmen from Mudia and Lawdar in Abyan province to fight what they always call " Saleh-made" Al Qaeda, in a reference to the former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The family of Ashal, majority of them in the Islamist party Islah, always argue that there is no Al Qaeda in Yemen, and it is only Saleh who makes it to use it as a scarecrow to get money from the west.
Al Qaeda, a real and increasing threat in Yemen, expanded a lot during the last year's protests.
Swiss woman's captors in Yemen want Osman Bin Laden's wives freed
Source; AFP, 30/03:2012
ADEN: A bid to release a Swiss woman kidnapped in Yemen has suffered a blow after her abductors made excessive demands, including for Osama bin Laden’s widows to be freed, a tribal chief said Thursday.
Al Qaeda militants abducted the woman on March 14 from her home in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, where she had been teaching at a foreign language institute.
She was taken to far eastern Shabwa province.
Tribal chief Ali Abdullah Zibari said, however, that mediation efforts had so far failed because of excessive demands placed by her captors, including the release of bin Laden’s widows held in Pakistan.
Zibari said the Islamic extremists also demanded the release of several women held in Iraq and Saudi Arabian return for the Swiss captive.
“Their initial demands for the release of (former Al Qaeda chief) Osama bin Laden’s wives held in Pakistan were rejected by Yemeni officials last week,” Zibari told AFP, adding the group then placed new conditions for the Swiss woman’s return.
“Now they’re demanding the release of 100 Al Qaeda affiliated militants from Yemeni jails and 50 million euros (66 million dollars)… at which point the mediation efforts failed because of the prohibitive demands,” he said.
Zibari played a crucial role in the release last November of three French aid workers kidnapped by Al Qaeda and held for five months.
Shabwa province is a stronghold of Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), which has expanded its influence in recent months, taking advantage of the political turmoil that has swept the country and forced the resignation of veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Kidnappings were common even before the uprising against Saleh’s rule that began last year.
More than 200 people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, many of them by members of the country’s powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips with the authorities.
Almost all of those kidnapped were later freed unharmed.
ADEN: A bid to release a Swiss woman kidnapped in Yemen has suffered a blow after her abductors made excessive demands, including for Osama bin Laden’s widows to be freed, a tribal chief said Thursday.
Al Qaeda militants abducted the woman on March 14 from her home in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, where she had been teaching at a foreign language institute.
She was taken to far eastern Shabwa province.
Tribal chief Ali Abdullah Zibari said, however, that mediation efforts had so far failed because of excessive demands placed by her captors, including the release of bin Laden’s widows held in Pakistan.
Zibari said the Islamic extremists also demanded the release of several women held in Iraq and Saudi Arabian return for the Swiss captive.
“Their initial demands for the release of (former Al Qaeda chief) Osama bin Laden’s wives held in Pakistan were rejected by Yemeni officials last week,” Zibari told AFP, adding the group then placed new conditions for the Swiss woman’s return.
“Now they’re demanding the release of 100 Al Qaeda affiliated militants from Yemeni jails and 50 million euros (66 million dollars)… at which point the mediation efforts failed because of the prohibitive demands,” he said.
Zibari played a crucial role in the release last November of three French aid workers kidnapped by Al Qaeda and held for five months.
Shabwa province is a stronghold of Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), which has expanded its influence in recent months, taking advantage of the political turmoil that has swept the country and forced the resignation of veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Kidnappings were common even before the uprising against Saleh’s rule that began last year.
More than 200 people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, many of them by members of the country’s powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips with the authorities.
Almost all of those kidnapped were later freed unharmed.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Yemen trying to get out of danger
By Nasser Arrabyee/28/03:2012
Without fixing the economic problems,the longstanding political crisis will not be solved in Yemen.
And without external, direct and immediate development support, the poor and war-torn country might remain in chaos for years and years more.
The oil-rich neighboring Kingdom of Saudi Arabia realized this fact on Monday and supplied Yemen with the most needed thing now which is fuels. The king sent a fuel grant enough for two months.
The grant was declared after the new President of Yemen Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi paid a very swift visit to Saudi monarch king Abdullah Bin Abdul Azeez on Mobday.
The two-hour visit, the first ever outside Yemen since Hadi was elected last February 2012, was not only for seeking economic support but also political.
The security situation is not yet good enough to help the new President Hadi and his unity government to go forward in implementing the Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal that is expected to end the power conflict between the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and two powerful and influential men, who were always the wings of Saleh's 33-year rule.
The two men, one is tribal and the other is military, were mainly behind the one-year protests against their opponent Saleh.
The Saudi King is almost the only external and powerful leader who can exercise pressure on the two men: tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar, and the defected general Ali Muhsen.
The three men Saleh, Al Ahmar and Ali Muhsen, belong to the same tribe, Hashid, the country's most powerful tribal federation. Hashid was always the ruling tribe over the recent history of Yemen.
The Yemeni capital Sanaa is still divided under the forces of these two men on one side and Hadi's government forces on the other.
The defected troops of Ali Muhsen are still in the streets around the square of protesters and Hamid Al Ahmar's tribal militants are still deployed in the neighborhoods around Al Ahmar compound in Al Hasaba area , north of the capital.
Although Hamid Al Ahmar and Ali Muhsen publicly supported President Hadi in February's presidential elections as a new president and supreme commander of the armed forces, but they apparently did not help him to remove security tensions and go to next step of the transitional period, which is the national dialogue.
The two powerful opponents of Saleh, wanted the new president Hadi to sack the son and nephews of Saleh from the army and security before going to the national dialogue.
The Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal did not stipulate that the son and the nephews should leave their posts. But, the deal stipulates, after the national dialogue, the army and the security agencies should be restructured and reorganized, which means some or all the army and security commanders including the son and nephews, should be changed according to the orders of the new president Hadi.
Neither Hamid Al Ahmar nor Ali Muhsen would dare to refuse the "advices" of the Saudi King who is concerned that any failure in the political process will be in the advantage of Al Qaeda which is using Yemen as a launch pad to re-strike the kingdom.
Both men receive financial support from the king.
If the Saudi king succeeded to convince Ali Muhsen and Hamid Al Ahmar to cooperate with the new President Hadi, there will be another challenge that should be overcome before going to the national dialogue which is expected to be held during April 2012.
The war between Al Qaeda and the government forces mainly in the southern province of Abyan will be the second largest obstacle. The new President Hadi is from Abyan.
A committee made up of nine people, four clerics and five tribal leaders, was formed secretly this week to stop the war in Abyan and start dialogue with Al Qaeda.
A source from the committee expected to achieve success if some of Al Qaeda conditions were met. " They want to apply Shariah in their areas," the source said " and we want to stop the war, so we would talk with them how to apply Sharia."
Meanwhile, the external supporters of the stalling political process in Yemen called all parties to hold the comprehensive national dialogue conference without delay, warning of any failure.
In a statement issued by the US embassy in Sanaa, which leads the international efforts to bring stability to Yemen earlier in the week , they said they would not accept any interference from any party to foil their efforts.
The external supporters, who called themselves 'Witnesses' called all parties to stop political wrangles in media and focus on implementation of the Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal, known as GCC Initiative.
The call came after the political process almost stalled due to a war of words between the parties who form the unity government over who was responsible for the crimes of Friday March 18, 2011 in which about 50 protesters were killed.The parties exchanged accusations.
The statement said, Witnesses of the GCC Agreement, recalling the obligations of all parties under the GCC Agreement and UNSCR 2014, and recalling that all parties are accountable for their actions, note with concern the recent deterioration in political cooperation in Yemen and the risks this poses to Phase 2 of the GCC Implementation Plan.
It is not acceptable for any party to interfere in the implementation of the GCC agreement.
We call on all parties to calm the rhetoric in the media.
We reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to the process and our support for President Hadi and the National Unity Government.
We call upon all the signatories of the GCC Agreement to renew their commitment to and constructive engagement in the implementation of the second Phase.
We call upon the President to convene the National Dialogue without delay and for all the parties to participate.
The friend donors of Yemen, from Gulf, US, and European Union, are expected to meet on May 23, 2012 to support the development abs economy of Yemen.
Without fixing the economic problems,the longstanding political crisis will not be solved in Yemen.
And without external, direct and immediate development support, the poor and war-torn country might remain in chaos for years and years more.
The oil-rich neighboring Kingdom of Saudi Arabia realized this fact on Monday and supplied Yemen with the most needed thing now which is fuels. The king sent a fuel grant enough for two months.
The grant was declared after the new President of Yemen Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi paid a very swift visit to Saudi monarch king Abdullah Bin Abdul Azeez on Mobday.
The two-hour visit, the first ever outside Yemen since Hadi was elected last February 2012, was not only for seeking economic support but also political.
The security situation is not yet good enough to help the new President Hadi and his unity government to go forward in implementing the Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal that is expected to end the power conflict between the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and two powerful and influential men, who were always the wings of Saleh's 33-year rule.
The two men, one is tribal and the other is military, were mainly behind the one-year protests against their opponent Saleh.
The Saudi King is almost the only external and powerful leader who can exercise pressure on the two men: tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar, and the defected general Ali Muhsen.
The three men Saleh, Al Ahmar and Ali Muhsen, belong to the same tribe, Hashid, the country's most powerful tribal federation. Hashid was always the ruling tribe over the recent history of Yemen.
The Yemeni capital Sanaa is still divided under the forces of these two men on one side and Hadi's government forces on the other.
The defected troops of Ali Muhsen are still in the streets around the square of protesters and Hamid Al Ahmar's tribal militants are still deployed in the neighborhoods around Al Ahmar compound in Al Hasaba area , north of the capital.
Although Hamid Al Ahmar and Ali Muhsen publicly supported President Hadi in February's presidential elections as a new president and supreme commander of the armed forces, but they apparently did not help him to remove security tensions and go to next step of the transitional period, which is the national dialogue.
The two powerful opponents of Saleh, wanted the new president Hadi to sack the son and nephews of Saleh from the army and security before going to the national dialogue.
The Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal did not stipulate that the son and the nephews should leave their posts. But, the deal stipulates, after the national dialogue, the army and the security agencies should be restructured and reorganized, which means some or all the army and security commanders including the son and nephews, should be changed according to the orders of the new president Hadi.
Neither Hamid Al Ahmar nor Ali Muhsen would dare to refuse the "advices" of the Saudi King who is concerned that any failure in the political process will be in the advantage of Al Qaeda which is using Yemen as a launch pad to re-strike the kingdom.
Both men receive financial support from the king.
If the Saudi king succeeded to convince Ali Muhsen and Hamid Al Ahmar to cooperate with the new President Hadi, there will be another challenge that should be overcome before going to the national dialogue which is expected to be held during April 2012.
The war between Al Qaeda and the government forces mainly in the southern province of Abyan will be the second largest obstacle. The new President Hadi is from Abyan.
A committee made up of nine people, four clerics and five tribal leaders, was formed secretly this week to stop the war in Abyan and start dialogue with Al Qaeda.
A source from the committee expected to achieve success if some of Al Qaeda conditions were met. " They want to apply Shariah in their areas," the source said " and we want to stop the war, so we would talk with them how to apply Sharia."
Meanwhile, the external supporters of the stalling political process in Yemen called all parties to hold the comprehensive national dialogue conference without delay, warning of any failure.
In a statement issued by the US embassy in Sanaa, which leads the international efforts to bring stability to Yemen earlier in the week , they said they would not accept any interference from any party to foil their efforts.
The external supporters, who called themselves 'Witnesses' called all parties to stop political wrangles in media and focus on implementation of the Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal, known as GCC Initiative.
The call came after the political process almost stalled due to a war of words between the parties who form the unity government over who was responsible for the crimes of Friday March 18, 2011 in which about 50 protesters were killed.The parties exchanged accusations.
The statement said, Witnesses of the GCC Agreement, recalling the obligations of all parties under the GCC Agreement and UNSCR 2014, and recalling that all parties are accountable for their actions, note with concern the recent deterioration in political cooperation in Yemen and the risks this poses to Phase 2 of the GCC Implementation Plan.
It is not acceptable for any party to interfere in the implementation of the GCC agreement.
We call on all parties to calm the rhetoric in the media.
We reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to the process and our support for President Hadi and the National Unity Government.
We call upon all the signatories of the GCC Agreement to renew their commitment to and constructive engagement in the implementation of the second Phase.
We call upon the President to convene the National Dialogue without delay and for all the parties to participate.
The friend donors of Yemen, from Gulf, US, and European Union, are expected to meet on May 23, 2012 to support the development abs economy of Yemen.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
US envoy in Yemen this week for more consultations over future of political process
Source: AFP, 25/03/2012
WASHINGTON- The top US diplomat for the Middle East heads to Sanaa on Sunday to meet senior government officials and activists amid a political transition after longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down.
During his stay in the Yemeni capital Sunday through Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman will "highlight the US commitment to Yemen's political transition as well as the need for the transition process to allow broad participation by the Yemeni people," the State Department said.
Feltman was due to meet with President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and other senior government officials, along with youth leaders, women activists and media representatives, it added in a statement.
Under the terms of the Gulf-brokered agreement which he signed with the opposition in November, Saleh gave up the Sanaa presidency that he had held since 1978.
But he retains the leadership of the General People's Congress party and aides have not ruled out his standing in a contested presidential election due to be held alongside new parliamentary polls in 2014.
Following his stay in Yemen, Feltman is due to travel to the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with senior government officials.
"His meetings will cover the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including ongoing efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria," the State Department said.
Qatar has played a leading diplomatic role in regional and international efforts to halt the Syrian government crackdown on dissent, which shows no signs of abating after a bloody year in which monitors say over 9,000 people lost their lives.
WASHINGTON- The top US diplomat for the Middle East heads to Sanaa on Sunday to meet senior government officials and activists amid a political transition after longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down.
During his stay in the Yemeni capital Sunday through Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman will "highlight the US commitment to Yemen's political transition as well as the need for the transition process to allow broad participation by the Yemeni people," the State Department said.
Feltman was due to meet with President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and other senior government officials, along with youth leaders, women activists and media representatives, it added in a statement.
Under the terms of the Gulf-brokered agreement which he signed with the opposition in November, Saleh gave up the Sanaa presidency that he had held since 1978.
But he retains the leadership of the General People's Congress party and aides have not ruled out his standing in a contested presidential election due to be held alongside new parliamentary polls in 2014.
Following his stay in Yemen, Feltman is due to travel to the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with senior government officials.
"His meetings will cover the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including ongoing efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria," the State Department said.
Qatar has played a leading diplomatic role in regional and international efforts to halt the Syrian government crackdown on dissent, which shows no signs of abating after a bloody year in which monitors say over 9,000 people lost their lives.
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Friend of Yemen donors meet in Riyadh on May
Source: Reuters, 24/03/2012
LONDON - The Friends of Yemen group of donor nations plans to meet in May in Riyadh to encourage political transition in the troubled Arabian Peninsula state against a backdrop of mounting violence, Britain said on Friday.
The meeting, which will include Gulf and European states and the United States, is the group’s third and comes amid an escalation of violence by a resurgent al Qaeda, which has exploited months of political turmoil to expand in Yemen.
Current Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office last month under a plan crafted by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with U.S. backing, after a year of massive protests against his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“The recent deterioration of political cooperation in Yemen is concerning and we call upon all groups to engage constructively in transition,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement, announcing that the next Friends of Yemen meeting would be held in the Saudi capital on May 23.
Britain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen co-chair the group.
The statement included an official message from the body, which lauded Hadi’s inauguration on February 25, and said the international community now had to support government reforms.
“Tackling economic and security challenges in Yemen is of paramount importance, as is creating an inclusive political environment through national dialogue,” said the group, which also called for the rejection of violence.
Under the GCC power transfer plan, Hadi was elected for a two-year transitional period to restructure the armed forces and oversee the drafting of a new constitution.
Critics say Saleh’s relatives remain in control of the security establishment and armed forces, fanning suspicions that Hadi is incapable of standing up his predecessor’s allies.
LONDON - The Friends of Yemen group of donor nations plans to meet in May in Riyadh to encourage political transition in the troubled Arabian Peninsula state against a backdrop of mounting violence, Britain said on Friday.
The meeting, which will include Gulf and European states and the United States, is the group’s third and comes amid an escalation of violence by a resurgent al Qaeda, which has exploited months of political turmoil to expand in Yemen.
Current Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office last month under a plan crafted by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with U.S. backing, after a year of massive protests against his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“The recent deterioration of political cooperation in Yemen is concerning and we call upon all groups to engage constructively in transition,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement, announcing that the next Friends of Yemen meeting would be held in the Saudi capital on May 23.
Britain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen co-chair the group.
The statement included an official message from the body, which lauded Hadi’s inauguration on February 25, and said the international community now had to support government reforms.
“Tackling economic and security challenges in Yemen is of paramount importance, as is creating an inclusive political environment through national dialogue,” said the group, which also called for the rejection of violence.
Under the GCC power transfer plan, Hadi was elected for a two-year transitional period to restructure the armed forces and oversee the drafting of a new constitution.
Critics say Saleh’s relatives remain in control of the security establishment and armed forces, fanning suspicions that Hadi is incapable of standing up his predecessor’s allies.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
International call for comprehensive dialogue without delay in Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee, 22/03/2012
The external supporters of the stalling political process in Yemen called all parties to hold a comprehensive dialogue conference without delay, warning of any failure.
In a statement issued by the US embassy in Sanaa which leads the international efforts to bring stability to Yemen, on Thursday, they would not accept any interference from any party to foil their efforts.
The external supporters, who called themselves 'Witnesses' called all parties to stop political wrangles in media and focus on implementation of the
US-backed and Saudi-led gulf-brokered deal.
The call came after the political process almost stalled due to a war of words between the parties who form the unity government over who was responsible for the crimes of Friday March 18, 2011 in which about 50 protesters were killed.
The parties exchanged accusations.
The statement said, Witnesses of the GCC Agreement, recalling the obligations of all parties under the GCC Agreement and UNSCR 2014, and recalling that all parties are accountable for their actions, note with concern the recent deterioration in political cooperation in Yemen and the risks this poses to Phase 2 of the GCC Implementation Plan.
It is not acceptable for any party to interfere in the implementation of the GCC agreement.
We call on all parties to calm the rhetoric in the media.
We reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to the process and our support for President Hadi and the National Unity Government.
We call upon all the signatories of the GCC Agreement to renew their commitment to and constructive engagement in the implementation of the second Phase.
We call upon the President to convene the National Dialogue without delay and for all the parties to participate.
The external supporters of the stalling political process in Yemen called all parties to hold a comprehensive dialogue conference without delay, warning of any failure.
In a statement issued by the US embassy in Sanaa which leads the international efforts to bring stability to Yemen, on Thursday, they would not accept any interference from any party to foil their efforts.
The external supporters, who called themselves 'Witnesses' called all parties to stop political wrangles in media and focus on implementation of the
US-backed and Saudi-led gulf-brokered deal.
The call came after the political process almost stalled due to a war of words between the parties who form the unity government over who was responsible for the crimes of Friday March 18, 2011 in which about 50 protesters were killed.
The parties exchanged accusations.
The statement said, Witnesses of the GCC Agreement, recalling the obligations of all parties under the GCC Agreement and UNSCR 2014, and recalling that all parties are accountable for their actions, note with concern the recent deterioration in political cooperation in Yemen and the risks this poses to Phase 2 of the GCC Implementation Plan.
It is not acceptable for any party to interfere in the implementation of the GCC agreement.
We call on all parties to calm the rhetoric in the media.
We reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to the process and our support for President Hadi and the National Unity Government.
We call upon all the signatories of the GCC Agreement to renew their commitment to and constructive engagement in the implementation of the second Phase.
We call upon the President to convene the National Dialogue without delay and for all the parties to participate.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Al Qaeda moving faster than new government in Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee, 20/03/2012
Al Qaeda in Yemen has been trying to be steps ahead of the newly elected President and his confused and weak new government in terms of controlling and expanding.
Since February 25, when the new President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi took the constitutional oath as a new elected president,
Al Qaeda implemented more than 10 operations against military and security forces in many different provinces especially in the southern province of Abyan, Al Baida and Hudrmout where its presence is higher and more overt.
In the main southern city of Aden, earlier this week,the secret police (intelligence) arrested a man from among activists protesting in the streets and demanding the separation of the south from the north.
After being arrested, the man tried to shoot the officers with a pistol he was hiding with him.
The officers shot him dead immediately and put his deadbody in their car and drove away. The man was wanted as Al Qaeda operative, security sources confirmed to the weekly later in the day.
Tens of angry young people of the area, Al Mualla in Aden, immediately started to block the roads and set fire to tyres demanding the dead body of their 'brother' . It became very difficult for us as reporters that day to go from place to place through Mualla area inside the city of Aden.
The incident showed clearly that Al Qaeda is inside Aden with supporters and sympathizers who are exploiting the chaos because of the separatist sentiment on one hand, and general political crisis in the whole country on the other.
Al Qaeda tried many times before to take control over Aden, and threatened many other times but always failed because the coastal city is considered as a " red line" by the Yemeni government and its western friends.
If Aden falls under the control of Al Qaeda, the whole south and the Gulf of Aden will be under its control. This may mean the control of the maritime roads through about 2 million barrels of oil pass every day.
" Al Qaeda is everywhere here in Aden also, but it is not as overt as Abyan, here it is working secretly," said Hussein Othman, a tribal leader from Abyan who is based in Aden.
" You can find them also among those who fled the war," said Othman.
About 130,000 people from Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan, and the neighboring areas, are still away from their houses, majority of them the city of Aden, since May 2011, when Al Qaeda declared their areas a Taliban-style Islamic Emirates.
The 32-year old Raidan Anwar Kahtan, along with his 10-member family have been living in a secondary school in the coastal city of Aden, with about 1000 people ( known as internally displaced persons, IDPs) for nine months.
Like most of the IDPs, Raidan said he is fed up and very eager to return home in Zinjubar.
Last month, Raidan Kahtan decided to go to Zinjubar to see if he could return with his family.
Zinjubar is only 45 km away from Aden where the majority of the IDPs are living in schools and some other government buildings with aids from UN and local agencies and charities.
Raidan Kahtan told the Ahram Weekly reporter who visited the the IDPs centers in Aden on March 17, 2012, that two guards, Pakistani and Somalian, prevented him from entering his house.
The partly destroyed house has become a weapon store for Al Qaeda, and the two non-Yemeni guards were safeguarding the weapons which were looted from the military camps in the areas under the control of Al Qaeda in various battles over the last few months.
" 'This is my house' and they said no, 'this is a weapon store, and we are assigned to safeguard it'," said Raidan sadly and angrily.
The top leader of Al Qaeda in Zinjubar, Jallal Beleidi, was always the neighbor of Raidan and they know each other very well.
"When I went to their top leader Jallal Beleidi who was previously my neighbor before we displaced, and he immediately ordered the guards to let me go in my house," said Raidan.
" I was shocked to see my house full of weapons,and to see our city full of foreigners," he said.
Raidan decided to return to Aden and leave his city for Al Qaeda, which call themselves Ansar Al Shariah, supporters of Islamic Shariah, in an attempt to attract more young people and more support from people inside and outside Yemen. The term Ansar Al Shariah, seemingly "good" name, improves the image of the terrorist Al Qaeda.
" I took some of my stuff, which we need here, and returned this depressing place again," said Raidan.
Umm Mohammed is a mother of four children in this "depressing" IDPs centre in Crater area of Aden.
The 38-year old woman said she tried four times to return to her house in Zinjubar after she had become extremely fed up and depressed. The last time she went back was last February.
" Getting killed in my house is much better than staying this long here," said Umm Mohammed, who has been for about nine months in the IDPs centre, which is a high school filled of people like her who escaped the war at the beginning.
Now there is almost no war, but they can not live with Al Qaeda.
The zealous Taliban-style treatments of Al Qaeda people in her city Zinjubar, made Umm Mohammed change her mind about staying in her house with these strange people preventing her to live her life as she wants.
Every time she goes out, they ask her about her 'Mahram' a male relative who should be always with her.
Umm Mohammed is a widow, her husband died nine years ago. She has been earning money by doing some work to support her four children. She is used to do everything to raise and send her children to school.
"The last time I was there in February, Al Qaeda people prevented me from going out with my red shoes," she said.
Al Qaeda people said the colored shoes would attract the attention of the men to Umm Mohammed and this violates their interpretation of Islam.
She went back to the house and took an old brown pair of shoes, but they stopped her and forced her to return home again.
" Then I decided to go bare-footed , because my children were very hungry and I needed to bring some food from the market," she said.
While walking in the street of the war-destroyed city with her body completely covered in black, one of Al Qaeda men saw a toe of her foot and he started to yell at her to go home or she will be beaten.
" Then I decided to return here, to this camp whatever bad it is, it will not be worse than treatments of these strange people," she told the weekly.
On Sunday March 18, 2012, Al Qaeda operatives killed an American English teacher in the southern central city of Taiz. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility saying the American man was a missionary.
On Friday March 16, 2012, tribesmen from the southern-eastern province of Shabwa, mostly controlled by Al Qaeda, kidnapped a Swiss woman from the western coastal city of Hodeidah.
"The Swiss hostage is safe somewhere here, and the kidnappers are waiting for negotiations for her release," Sheikh Ali Abdul Sallam, a tribal leader close to kidnappers, said on Tuesday.
The ministry of interior said 6 Somalians who were fighting woth Al Qaeda in Abyan were arrested.
Al Qaeda in Yemen has been trying to be steps ahead of the newly elected President and his confused and weak new government in terms of controlling and expanding.
Since February 25, when the new President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi took the constitutional oath as a new elected president,
Al Qaeda implemented more than 10 operations against military and security forces in many different provinces especially in the southern province of Abyan, Al Baida and Hudrmout where its presence is higher and more overt.
In the main southern city of Aden, earlier this week,the secret police (intelligence) arrested a man from among activists protesting in the streets and demanding the separation of the south from the north.
After being arrested, the man tried to shoot the officers with a pistol he was hiding with him.
The officers shot him dead immediately and put his deadbody in their car and drove away. The man was wanted as Al Qaeda operative, security sources confirmed to the weekly later in the day.
Tens of angry young people of the area, Al Mualla in Aden, immediately started to block the roads and set fire to tyres demanding the dead body of their 'brother' . It became very difficult for us as reporters that day to go from place to place through Mualla area inside the city of Aden.
The incident showed clearly that Al Qaeda is inside Aden with supporters and sympathizers who are exploiting the chaos because of the separatist sentiment on one hand, and general political crisis in the whole country on the other.
Al Qaeda tried many times before to take control over Aden, and threatened many other times but always failed because the coastal city is considered as a " red line" by the Yemeni government and its western friends.
If Aden falls under the control of Al Qaeda, the whole south and the Gulf of Aden will be under its control. This may mean the control of the maritime roads through about 2 million barrels of oil pass every day.
" Al Qaeda is everywhere here in Aden also, but it is not as overt as Abyan, here it is working secretly," said Hussein Othman, a tribal leader from Abyan who is based in Aden.
" You can find them also among those who fled the war," said Othman.
About 130,000 people from Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan, and the neighboring areas, are still away from their houses, majority of them the city of Aden, since May 2011, when Al Qaeda declared their areas a Taliban-style Islamic Emirates.
The 32-year old Raidan Anwar Kahtan, along with his 10-member family have been living in a secondary school in the coastal city of Aden, with about 1000 people ( known as internally displaced persons, IDPs) for nine months.
Like most of the IDPs, Raidan said he is fed up and very eager to return home in Zinjubar.
Last month, Raidan Kahtan decided to go to Zinjubar to see if he could return with his family.
Zinjubar is only 45 km away from Aden where the majority of the IDPs are living in schools and some other government buildings with aids from UN and local agencies and charities.
Raidan Kahtan told the Ahram Weekly reporter who visited the the IDPs centers in Aden on March 17, 2012, that two guards, Pakistani and Somalian, prevented him from entering his house.
The partly destroyed house has become a weapon store for Al Qaeda, and the two non-Yemeni guards were safeguarding the weapons which were looted from the military camps in the areas under the control of Al Qaeda in various battles over the last few months.
" 'This is my house' and they said no, 'this is a weapon store, and we are assigned to safeguard it'," said Raidan sadly and angrily.
The top leader of Al Qaeda in Zinjubar, Jallal Beleidi, was always the neighbor of Raidan and they know each other very well.
"When I went to their top leader Jallal Beleidi who was previously my neighbor before we displaced, and he immediately ordered the guards to let me go in my house," said Raidan.
" I was shocked to see my house full of weapons,and to see our city full of foreigners," he said.
Raidan decided to return to Aden and leave his city for Al Qaeda, which call themselves Ansar Al Shariah, supporters of Islamic Shariah, in an attempt to attract more young people and more support from people inside and outside Yemen. The term Ansar Al Shariah, seemingly "good" name, improves the image of the terrorist Al Qaeda.
" I took some of my stuff, which we need here, and returned this depressing place again," said Raidan.
Umm Mohammed is a mother of four children in this "depressing" IDPs centre in Crater area of Aden.
The 38-year old woman said she tried four times to return to her house in Zinjubar after she had become extremely fed up and depressed. The last time she went back was last February.
" Getting killed in my house is much better than staying this long here," said Umm Mohammed, who has been for about nine months in the IDPs centre, which is a high school filled of people like her who escaped the war at the beginning.
Now there is almost no war, but they can not live with Al Qaeda.
The zealous Taliban-style treatments of Al Qaeda people in her city Zinjubar, made Umm Mohammed change her mind about staying in her house with these strange people preventing her to live her life as she wants.
Every time she goes out, they ask her about her 'Mahram' a male relative who should be always with her.
Umm Mohammed is a widow, her husband died nine years ago. She has been earning money by doing some work to support her four children. She is used to do everything to raise and send her children to school.
"The last time I was there in February, Al Qaeda people prevented me from going out with my red shoes," she said.
Al Qaeda people said the colored shoes would attract the attention of the men to Umm Mohammed and this violates their interpretation of Islam.
She went back to the house and took an old brown pair of shoes, but they stopped her and forced her to return home again.
" Then I decided to go bare-footed , because my children were very hungry and I needed to bring some food from the market," she said.
While walking in the street of the war-destroyed city with her body completely covered in black, one of Al Qaeda men saw a toe of her foot and he started to yell at her to go home or she will be beaten.
" Then I decided to return here, to this camp whatever bad it is, it will not be worse than treatments of these strange people," she told the weekly.
On Sunday March 18, 2012, Al Qaeda operatives killed an American English teacher in the southern central city of Taiz. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility saying the American man was a missionary.
On Friday March 16, 2012, tribesmen from the southern-eastern province of Shabwa, mostly controlled by Al Qaeda, kidnapped a Swiss woman from the western coastal city of Hodeidah.
"The Swiss hostage is safe somewhere here, and the kidnappers are waiting for negotiations for her release," Sheikh Ali Abdul Sallam, a tribal leader close to kidnappers, said on Tuesday.
The ministry of interior said 6 Somalians who were fighting woth Al Qaeda in Abyan were arrested.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
With Arms for Yemen Rebels, Iran Seeks Wider Mideast Role
Source : The New YorkTimes,16/03/2012
By Eric Schmitt and Robert Worth
WASHINGTON — In the past several months, Iran appears to have increased its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen as part of what American military and intelligence officials say is a widening Iranian effort to extend its influence across the greater Middle East.
Iranian smugglers backed by the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, are using small boats to ship AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and other arms to replace older weapons used by the rebels, a senior American official said. Using intercepted cellphone conversations between the smugglers and Quds Force operatives provided by the Americans, the Yemeni and Indian coastal authorities have seized some shipments, according to the American official and a senior Indian official.
The scale of Iran’s involvement remains unclear, and some Yemeni officials and analysts remain skeptical about the impact of any weapons shipments, citing a long history of dubious accusations by Saudi Arabia — Iran’s regional nemesis — and Saudi allies in Yemen.
But American officials — who had sometimes dismissed such accusations as propaganda — say there now appears to be at least limited material support from the Iranians.
Earlier this year, Iran tried to send to Yemen material used to make explosive devices, known as explosively formed penetrators, or E.F.P.’s, according to a high-ranking Yemeni security official. The material was shipped in freighters from Turkey and Egypt that docked in Aden.
The cargo was destined for Yemeni businessmen affiliated with the rebels, known as the Houthis, but was intercepted by the government, the Yemeni official said. American officials said Iran supplied the same lethal roadside bombs to insurgents in Iraq during the worst of the violence there, an accusation that Iran has consistently denied.
“Iran is really trying to play a big role in Yemen now,” the Yemeni official said from his office in Sana, the country’s capital.
American officials say the Iranian aid to Yemen — a relatively small but steady stream of automatic rifles, grenade launchers, bomb-making material and several million dollars in cash — mirrors the kind of weapons and training the Quds Force is providing the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. It also reflects a broader campaign that includes what American officials say was a failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in October, and what appears to have been a coordinated effort by Iran to attack Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia earlier this year. Iran has denied any role in the attacks.
“They’re fighting basically a shadow war every day,” Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command, told a Senate hearing last week.
“They are working earnestly to keep Assad in power,” he said, explaining that in addition to arms and scores of Quds Force trainers and Iranian intelligence agents, Iran is providing the Syrian security services with electronic eavesdropping equipment “to try and pick up where the opposition networks are.”
In early January, American intelligence officials said, the Quds Force commander, Qassim Suleimani, visited Damascus, Syria, raising suspicions that Iran was advising Mr. Assad on how to quash the uprising. “What we’re seeing is a much more aggressive Iranian effort to become involved in a number of areas and activities,” President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, said in a recent interview.
The authorities in Azerbaijan announced Wednesday that they had arrested 22 Azeri citizens suspected of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and plotting to attack the United States and Israeli Embassies and the British oil company BP, according to Reuters, citing the country’s National Security Ministry.
Analysts say Yemen could be highly useful in any effort by Iran to retaliate against an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The country’s longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, formally stepped down earlier this year after a year of widespread protests and violence, but Yemen remains highly volatile, with its political elite divided and much of the country outside the control of the government. Militants linked to Al Qaeda continue to battle the Yemeni military in the south, and much of the north is under the control of the Houthi rebels.
The Houthi rebels are based just across the border from Saudi Arabia, and they practice a quasi-Shiite form of Islam that makes them natural Iranian allies. Skilled guerrilla fighters, they fought a short war with Saudi Arabia in 2009, and could presumably be used as an Iranian proxy force. “Iran is hoping to use Yemen as a pressure point against Saudi Arabia and all the countries in the Arab Gulf,” said Yahya al-Jifri, a leader of Al Rabita, one of Yemen’s independent political parties.
A Houthi spokesman, Yahya al-Houthi, denied that the movement had received any Iranian weapons, training or money, and added that the accusation was an old one leveled by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Many Yemeni political and tribal figures dismiss any Iranian military support as insignificant, noting that the Houthis have plenty of weapons, and that Saudi Arabia has been supplying Yemeni factions with arms for decades. Some add that any substantial shipments of arms across inland Yemen would have left a clear trail of evidence.
There have been reports on the subject in the Yemeni press — as in years past — but those are widely dismissed as rumors disseminated by Saleh loyalists, or allies of Saudi Arabia. One high-ranking Yemeni official said that he had been told about the Iranian military aid by Mr. Brennan, but that he had no other reason to believe it.
True or not, the claims of Iranian support are now held up as gospel by Sunni tribal figures in northern Yemen, where fears are rising of a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. One prominent Sunni tribal leader in northern Jawf Province, Abdullah al-Jumaili, said: “We don’t even call them the ‘Houthis’ anymore. We refer to them as ‘the followers of Iran.’ ”
Weapons aside, Iran is offering financial help, training and encouragement to a number of groups that protested against Mr. Saleh’s rule in the past year, according to Yemeni political leaders, diplomats and tribal figures.
“We have been treated unjustly by Saudi Arabia, and we do not mind taking help from Iran, which has been sympathetic to our cause,” Sultan al-Samie, a prominent tribal figure and militia leader in the central city of Taiz, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Samie said that he traveled to Iran to attend an all-expenses-paid conference last fall, along with scores of other protesters, but he denied widespread reports in Yemen that he has accepted Iranian payments.
Iran appears to be playing its hand shrewdly, offering financial help and sympathy but insisting that there are no strings attached, according to Mr. Samie and others. That is an important distinction in an area where Saudi Arabia is widely perceived to have used cash to manipulate Yemeni political and religious currents. Iran also recently added a daily Yemen program to its Arabic-language channel, Al Aalem, that is now popular across Yemen for its anti-Saleh slant. The channel is also viscerally anti-American, like all Iranian official media.
There also appears to be increased Iranian influence among Yemeni activists, especially those not affiliated with the Islamist party Islah, and even more so among supporters of the southern separatists movement, known as the Herak.
A large contingent of Yemenis attended two conferences in Tehran in September and January intended to link Iran with protesters affiliated with the Arab Spring movements. “We need another force today to make balance and I think that force is Iran,” said Aad Qaid, a 28-year-old activist who supports the southern secessionist movement and attended the January conference. “Iran supports the Houthis and Herak.”
Laura Kasinof contributed reporting from Sana and Aden, Yemen.
By Eric Schmitt and Robert Worth
WASHINGTON — In the past several months, Iran appears to have increased its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen as part of what American military and intelligence officials say is a widening Iranian effort to extend its influence across the greater Middle East.
Iranian smugglers backed by the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, are using small boats to ship AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and other arms to replace older weapons used by the rebels, a senior American official said. Using intercepted cellphone conversations between the smugglers and Quds Force operatives provided by the Americans, the Yemeni and Indian coastal authorities have seized some shipments, according to the American official and a senior Indian official.
The scale of Iran’s involvement remains unclear, and some Yemeni officials and analysts remain skeptical about the impact of any weapons shipments, citing a long history of dubious accusations by Saudi Arabia — Iran’s regional nemesis — and Saudi allies in Yemen.
But American officials — who had sometimes dismissed such accusations as propaganda — say there now appears to be at least limited material support from the Iranians.
Earlier this year, Iran tried to send to Yemen material used to make explosive devices, known as explosively formed penetrators, or E.F.P.’s, according to a high-ranking Yemeni security official. The material was shipped in freighters from Turkey and Egypt that docked in Aden.
The cargo was destined for Yemeni businessmen affiliated with the rebels, known as the Houthis, but was intercepted by the government, the Yemeni official said. American officials said Iran supplied the same lethal roadside bombs to insurgents in Iraq during the worst of the violence there, an accusation that Iran has consistently denied.
“Iran is really trying to play a big role in Yemen now,” the Yemeni official said from his office in Sana, the country’s capital.
American officials say the Iranian aid to Yemen — a relatively small but steady stream of automatic rifles, grenade launchers, bomb-making material and several million dollars in cash — mirrors the kind of weapons and training the Quds Force is providing the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. It also reflects a broader campaign that includes what American officials say was a failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in October, and what appears to have been a coordinated effort by Iran to attack Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia earlier this year. Iran has denied any role in the attacks.
“They’re fighting basically a shadow war every day,” Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command, told a Senate hearing last week.
“They are working earnestly to keep Assad in power,” he said, explaining that in addition to arms and scores of Quds Force trainers and Iranian intelligence agents, Iran is providing the Syrian security services with electronic eavesdropping equipment “to try and pick up where the opposition networks are.”
In early January, American intelligence officials said, the Quds Force commander, Qassim Suleimani, visited Damascus, Syria, raising suspicions that Iran was advising Mr. Assad on how to quash the uprising. “What we’re seeing is a much more aggressive Iranian effort to become involved in a number of areas and activities,” President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, said in a recent interview.
The authorities in Azerbaijan announced Wednesday that they had arrested 22 Azeri citizens suspected of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and plotting to attack the United States and Israeli Embassies and the British oil company BP, according to Reuters, citing the country’s National Security Ministry.
Analysts say Yemen could be highly useful in any effort by Iran to retaliate against an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The country’s longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, formally stepped down earlier this year after a year of widespread protests and violence, but Yemen remains highly volatile, with its political elite divided and much of the country outside the control of the government. Militants linked to Al Qaeda continue to battle the Yemeni military in the south, and much of the north is under the control of the Houthi rebels.
The Houthi rebels are based just across the border from Saudi Arabia, and they practice a quasi-Shiite form of Islam that makes them natural Iranian allies. Skilled guerrilla fighters, they fought a short war with Saudi Arabia in 2009, and could presumably be used as an Iranian proxy force. “Iran is hoping to use Yemen as a pressure point against Saudi Arabia and all the countries in the Arab Gulf,” said Yahya al-Jifri, a leader of Al Rabita, one of Yemen’s independent political parties.
A Houthi spokesman, Yahya al-Houthi, denied that the movement had received any Iranian weapons, training or money, and added that the accusation was an old one leveled by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Many Yemeni political and tribal figures dismiss any Iranian military support as insignificant, noting that the Houthis have plenty of weapons, and that Saudi Arabia has been supplying Yemeni factions with arms for decades. Some add that any substantial shipments of arms across inland Yemen would have left a clear trail of evidence.
There have been reports on the subject in the Yemeni press — as in years past — but those are widely dismissed as rumors disseminated by Saleh loyalists, or allies of Saudi Arabia. One high-ranking Yemeni official said that he had been told about the Iranian military aid by Mr. Brennan, but that he had no other reason to believe it.
True or not, the claims of Iranian support are now held up as gospel by Sunni tribal figures in northern Yemen, where fears are rising of a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. One prominent Sunni tribal leader in northern Jawf Province, Abdullah al-Jumaili, said: “We don’t even call them the ‘Houthis’ anymore. We refer to them as ‘the followers of Iran.’ ”
Weapons aside, Iran is offering financial help, training and encouragement to a number of groups that protested against Mr. Saleh’s rule in the past year, according to Yemeni political leaders, diplomats and tribal figures.
“We have been treated unjustly by Saudi Arabia, and we do not mind taking help from Iran, which has been sympathetic to our cause,” Sultan al-Samie, a prominent tribal figure and militia leader in the central city of Taiz, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Samie said that he traveled to Iran to attend an all-expenses-paid conference last fall, along with scores of other protesters, but he denied widespread reports in Yemen that he has accepted Iranian payments.
Iran appears to be playing its hand shrewdly, offering financial help and sympathy but insisting that there are no strings attached, according to Mr. Samie and others. That is an important distinction in an area where Saudi Arabia is widely perceived to have used cash to manipulate Yemeni political and religious currents. Iran also recently added a daily Yemen program to its Arabic-language channel, Al Aalem, that is now popular across Yemen for its anti-Saleh slant. The channel is also viscerally anti-American, like all Iranian official media.
There also appears to be increased Iranian influence among Yemeni activists, especially those not affiliated with the Islamist party Islah, and even more so among supporters of the southern separatists movement, known as the Herak.
A large contingent of Yemenis attended two conferences in Tehran in September and January intended to link Iran with protesters affiliated with the Arab Spring movements. “We need another force today to make balance and I think that force is Iran,” said Aad Qaid, a 28-year-old activist who supports the southern secessionist movement and attended the January conference. “Iran supports the Houthis and Herak.”
Laura Kasinof contributed reporting from Sana and Aden, Yemen.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
UN envoy warns international community of the increasing threat of Al Qaeda in Yemen
Source : Washington Post,
by Column Lynch, 13/03/2012
UNITED NATIONS — A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made “alarming” advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week.
“The scale of these attacks serves as a stark reminder of the security threat posed by al-Qaeda,” Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the 15-nation council Wednesday, according to a copy of the briefing notes obtained by The Washington Post. “Despite all counterterrorism efforts, al-Qaeda in Yemen has not retreated.”
Yemen’s uprising and the political instability that has followed have pushed the country to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. And children have especially suffered.
Members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the group’s Yemen branch is known, have been “intensifying their attacks” against government targets since the election last month of Yemen’s new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Benomar told the council. Hadi, the former vice president, replaced Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years in power in a transition brokered by Arab leaders and supported by the United States.
On inauguration day, Feb. 25, al-Qaeda struck a presidential palace in the provincial capital of Mukalla, killing 26 officers.
More recently, Benomar said, al-Qaeda has launched a series of attacks on military bases in the south, killing more than 180 soldiers and capturing heavy weapons. Dozens of soldiers, he added, were reportedly paraded through the town square of Jaar, which has been held by al-Qaeda for several months.
The gloomy account underscored the challenges of confronting an enemy that has shown resilience since the United States succeeded last year in killing its leader, Osama bin Laden, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who was a skilled propagandist and who had a key role in external operations for the Yemen affiliate, according to U.S. officials.
The report also highlighted al-Qaeda’s effort to plant roots in Yemen, forming alliances with local tribal leaders while providing basic services to communities.
“This recent campaign launched by al-Qaeda poses a new challenge to the new government,” Benomar said. “It continues to control strategic territory in the south and evolve as a major threat.
The group is also increasing their social leverage by ensuring security, administering justice and providing basic social services in the local communities under their control.”
Benomar said that Yemen’s new president has made a “clear commitment” to combat al-Qaeda but that “many Yemenis doubt how progress on this front could be achieved with a fractured army with multiple loyalties.”
On Saturday, the military launched airstrikes that killed 18 militants linked to al-Qaeda in central Yemen and wounded nine in the south, according to the Associated Press.
In response to Benomar’s briefing, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, conceded that the threat posed by al-Qaeda in Yemen “is real,” allowing the terrorist organization “to seize territory in southern Yemen.”
by Column Lynch, 13/03/2012
UNITED NATIONS — A reinvigorated al-Qaeda has made “alarming” advances in Yemen, expanding its military control over several southern towns and launching a series of brazen attacks that threaten the U.S.-backed political transition there, a senior U.N. envoy warned the Security Council in a confidential briefing last week.
“The scale of these attacks serves as a stark reminder of the security threat posed by al-Qaeda,” Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the 15-nation council Wednesday, according to a copy of the briefing notes obtained by The Washington Post. “Despite all counterterrorism efforts, al-Qaeda in Yemen has not retreated.”
Yemen’s uprising and the political instability that has followed have pushed the country to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. And children have especially suffered.
Members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the group’s Yemen branch is known, have been “intensifying their attacks” against government targets since the election last month of Yemen’s new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Benomar told the council. Hadi, the former vice president, replaced Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years in power in a transition brokered by Arab leaders and supported by the United States.
On inauguration day, Feb. 25, al-Qaeda struck a presidential palace in the provincial capital of Mukalla, killing 26 officers.
More recently, Benomar said, al-Qaeda has launched a series of attacks on military bases in the south, killing more than 180 soldiers and capturing heavy weapons. Dozens of soldiers, he added, were reportedly paraded through the town square of Jaar, which has been held by al-Qaeda for several months.
The gloomy account underscored the challenges of confronting an enemy that has shown resilience since the United States succeeded last year in killing its leader, Osama bin Laden, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who was a skilled propagandist and who had a key role in external operations for the Yemen affiliate, according to U.S. officials.
The report also highlighted al-Qaeda’s effort to plant roots in Yemen, forming alliances with local tribal leaders while providing basic services to communities.
“This recent campaign launched by al-Qaeda poses a new challenge to the new government,” Benomar said. “It continues to control strategic territory in the south and evolve as a major threat.
The group is also increasing their social leverage by ensuring security, administering justice and providing basic social services in the local communities under their control.”
Benomar said that Yemen’s new president has made a “clear commitment” to combat al-Qaeda but that “many Yemenis doubt how progress on this front could be achieved with a fractured army with multiple loyalties.”
On Saturday, the military launched airstrikes that killed 18 militants linked to al-Qaeda in central Yemen and wounded nine in the south, according to the Associated Press.
In response to Benomar’s briefing, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, conceded that the threat posed by al-Qaeda in Yemen “is real,” allowing the terrorist organization “to seize territory in southern Yemen.”
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Former Yemeni President Saleh slams government's performance
Source: Al Arabiya News, 11/03/2012
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to relinquish power, has moved to the opposition criticizing the national coalition government on Saturday as “weak” and “politically unsavvy.”
Saleh accused his political rivals, including army General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar who supported the uprising, of treason and corruption.
“We will disclose the files and show the facts for us to see to see who are the protectors of the revolution and its leaders from September 1962 until today and who are those who run forward to survive...symbols of corruption...traitors and agents of the dollar and the Ryal,” Saleh told a crowd of his supporters in Sanna.
He also criticized the uprising against him and described his opponents as “thugs.”
“What kind of revolution they are talking about? A revolution of thugs? The revolution of backwardness? The real revolutions happened in September 1962 in the north and in October 14, 1963 in the south and on day of the Yemeni Unity on May 22, 1990,” he said.
Mohammad Anaam, member of Saleh’s General People Congress party’s central committee and the editor in Chief of al-Mithaq Newspaper, told Al Arabiya that Saleh’s latest comments inaugurates a new a phase of “quasi-opposition” to expose the failures of the coalition government.
“Saleh’s speech shows that he was keen to implement the Gulf initiative (for power transfer) because the security and economic conditions were becoming more and more dangerous. This government has not done anything and it will disappoint people if it continues with this performance. It does not have programs to re-build the country,” Anaam said.
Saleh formally handed over power to his successor Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi last month and urged the new government to carry on the fight against al-Qaeda and called on “friends and brothers” to back efforts to rebuild the country after the destruction that was caused by the uprising that led to his ouster.
Yemen’s new president will serve for an interim two-year period as stipulated by a Gulf-brokered power transition plan signed by Saleh last November.
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to relinquish power, has moved to the opposition criticizing the national coalition government on Saturday as “weak” and “politically unsavvy.”
Saleh accused his political rivals, including army General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar who supported the uprising, of treason and corruption.
“We will disclose the files and show the facts for us to see to see who are the protectors of the revolution and its leaders from September 1962 until today and who are those who run forward to survive...symbols of corruption...traitors and agents of the dollar and the Ryal,” Saleh told a crowd of his supporters in Sanna.
He also criticized the uprising against him and described his opponents as “thugs.”
“What kind of revolution they are talking about? A revolution of thugs? The revolution of backwardness? The real revolutions happened in September 1962 in the north and in October 14, 1963 in the south and on day of the Yemeni Unity on May 22, 1990,” he said.
Mohammad Anaam, member of Saleh’s General People Congress party’s central committee and the editor in Chief of al-Mithaq Newspaper, told Al Arabiya that Saleh’s latest comments inaugurates a new a phase of “quasi-opposition” to expose the failures of the coalition government.
“Saleh’s speech shows that he was keen to implement the Gulf initiative (for power transfer) because the security and economic conditions were becoming more and more dangerous. This government has not done anything and it will disappoint people if it continues with this performance. It does not have programs to re-build the country,” Anaam said.
Saleh formally handed over power to his successor Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi last month and urged the new government to carry on the fight against al-Qaeda and called on “friends and brothers” to back efforts to rebuild the country after the destruction that was caused by the uprising that led to his ouster.
Yemen’s new president will serve for an interim two-year period as stipulated by a Gulf-brokered power transition plan signed by Saleh last November.
Friday, 9 March 2012
Yemen air raid kills suspected Qaeda militants
Source: Reuters, 10/03/2012
* TV channel says strikes done by U.S. planes
* Yemen and United States cooperating against al Qaeda
SANAA, March 10 (Reuters) - Air strikes on suspected positions of al Qaeda-linked fighters in southern Yemen killed several militants, a Yemeni military official said on Saturday.
Residents in Bayda, about 130 km (80 miles) southeast of the capital Sanaa said fighter planes late on Friday raided western outskirts of the town, where the Ansar al-Sharia militants, who have been fighting army forces since mid-2011, had been based.
"Flames and smoke could be seen rising from the area," one resident told Reuters by telephone.
A military official said: "The attack targeted a gathering of al Qaeda elements and a number of them were killed." He did not give further details.
Al Arabiya television said Friday's raid was believed to have been carried out by U.S. planes, but there no immediate confirmation of this.
Air raids against al Qaeda's active regional wing have been stepped up in the past few years in Yemen, which has had close security cooperation with the United States.
In late January, at least 12 al Qaeda militants, including four local leaders, were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen, which a tribal chief said was a U.S. attack. [ID:nL5E8CV075]
The United States has repeatedly used drones in Yemen to attack militants of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, described by CIA Director David Petraeus last year as "the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad".
The United States and Yemen's neighbour Saudi Arabia have been deeply worried about the expansion of al Qaeda in Yemen, where the group controls swathes of land near oil shipping routes through the Red Sea. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Firouz Sedarat)
* TV channel says strikes done by U.S. planes
* Yemen and United States cooperating against al Qaeda
SANAA, March 10 (Reuters) - Air strikes on suspected positions of al Qaeda-linked fighters in southern Yemen killed several militants, a Yemeni military official said on Saturday.
Residents in Bayda, about 130 km (80 miles) southeast of the capital Sanaa said fighter planes late on Friday raided western outskirts of the town, where the Ansar al-Sharia militants, who have been fighting army forces since mid-2011, had been based.
"Flames and smoke could be seen rising from the area," one resident told Reuters by telephone.
A military official said: "The attack targeted a gathering of al Qaeda elements and a number of them were killed." He did not give further details.
Al Arabiya television said Friday's raid was believed to have been carried out by U.S. planes, but there no immediate confirmation of this.
Air raids against al Qaeda's active regional wing have been stepped up in the past few years in Yemen, which has had close security cooperation with the United States.
In late January, at least 12 al Qaeda militants, including four local leaders, were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen, which a tribal chief said was a U.S. attack. [ID:nL5E8CV075]
The United States has repeatedly used drones in Yemen to attack militants of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, described by CIA Director David Petraeus last year as "the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad".
The United States and Yemen's neighbour Saudi Arabia have been deeply worried about the expansion of al Qaeda in Yemen, where the group controls swathes of land near oil shipping routes through the Red Sea. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Firouz Sedarat)
Monday, 5 March 2012
Detained soldiers train Al Qaeda operatives on looted heavy weapons
The new elected President vows to crush all terrorists
By Nasser Arrabyee,05/03/2012
Al Qaeda is forcing detained soldiers to train its fighters on modern tanks and artilleries and other heavy weapons that it looted after attacking troops positions yesterday in south Yemen, local sources said on Monday.
About 60 soldiers were detained and taken to the Taliban-style Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan on Sunday morning. More than 110 soldiers were killed and more than 150 other injured when Al Qaeda operatives attacked camps and positions in Dawfas area, at the circumference of Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan.
About 20 from Al Qaeda fighters were killed and dozens were injured, according to sources in Jaar.
"The detained soldiers from Dawfas battles were seen today Monday in Jaar training Al Qaeda fighters on the looted tanks and artilleries," said the local sources.
Although American and Yemeni fighters jets tried to bomb the looted heavy weapons yesterday, they failed to destroy everything, said the sources.
The newly elected president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi vowed to crush all hideouts of the terrorists in Abyan and other places and no single terrorist can stay after that.
"The confrontation would continue with all force until the last terrorist is killed," said President Hadi in meeting he held Monday with American, British, and Saudi officials and diplomats.
The country's military supreme committee held also a meeting with the 10 ambassadors who helped Yemenis to get out of their political crisis for discussing more serious confrontations with Al Qaeda which exploited the one-year unrest.
The families of the dead and injured soldiers demanded -in a statement sent to media on Monday- that the new elected President Hadi should strike with an iron fist on those who were responsible for the massacre of Dawfas.
The families demanded that the minister defense and minister of interior should resign and an investigation committee should be formed.
Meanwhile, 6 Al Qaeda suspects on board of car bomb were arrested early morning in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to security authorities. Earlier the week, an other car bomb was discovered and confiscated. The authorities were looking for three car bombs that were made in Arhab area, about 30 km north of the capital, where Al Qaeda has historic activities. Arhab is the village of the extremist cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani, who is accused by US and UN of being a global terrorist.
Last Wednesday February, 29, 2012, Al Qaeda threatened to attack places outside the battle field if the government troops did not withdraw from the circumference of Zinjubar within ten days.
" We, Ansar Shariah in the State of Abyan, would give the government an ultimatum of 10 days for withdrawing all the troops from the circumference of Zinjubar, and compensate the displaced persons," said Abu Hamzah Jalal Beledi, Emir Ansar Shariah in the State of Abyan, in a statement sent through SMS by an assistant of his called himself Abu Al Waleed.
" If the troops not withdrawn, we would attack outside the battle field, and we might have to implement the plan of the flooding river," said the top leader of Al Qaeda in Zinjubar.
Al Qaeda threat came only two days after the command of the troop units around Zinjubar gave an ultimatum of one week to Al Qaeda operatives to leave the city of Zinjubar otherwise the troops will storm the city.
The threats of Al Qaeda to strike outside the battle field came also one day after security authorities said they had intelligence that three car bombs are somewhere ready to implement suicide attacks against Yemeni government and Western interests in Yemen.
The security authorities are searching for the three car bombs almost everywhere, the security sources said to official media.
By Nasser Arrabyee,05/03/2012
Al Qaeda is forcing detained soldiers to train its fighters on modern tanks and artilleries and other heavy weapons that it looted after attacking troops positions yesterday in south Yemen, local sources said on Monday.
About 60 soldiers were detained and taken to the Taliban-style Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan on Sunday morning. More than 110 soldiers were killed and more than 150 other injured when Al Qaeda operatives attacked camps and positions in Dawfas area, at the circumference of Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan.
About 20 from Al Qaeda fighters were killed and dozens were injured, according to sources in Jaar.
"The detained soldiers from Dawfas battles were seen today Monday in Jaar training Al Qaeda fighters on the looted tanks and artilleries," said the local sources.
Although American and Yemeni fighters jets tried to bomb the looted heavy weapons yesterday, they failed to destroy everything, said the sources.
The newly elected president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi vowed to crush all hideouts of the terrorists in Abyan and other places and no single terrorist can stay after that.
"The confrontation would continue with all force until the last terrorist is killed," said President Hadi in meeting he held Monday with American, British, and Saudi officials and diplomats.
The country's military supreme committee held also a meeting with the 10 ambassadors who helped Yemenis to get out of their political crisis for discussing more serious confrontations with Al Qaeda which exploited the one-year unrest.
The families of the dead and injured soldiers demanded -in a statement sent to media on Monday- that the new elected President Hadi should strike with an iron fist on those who were responsible for the massacre of Dawfas.
The families demanded that the minister defense and minister of interior should resign and an investigation committee should be formed.
Meanwhile, 6 Al Qaeda suspects on board of car bomb were arrested early morning in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to security authorities. Earlier the week, an other car bomb was discovered and confiscated. The authorities were looking for three car bombs that were made in Arhab area, about 30 km north of the capital, where Al Qaeda has historic activities. Arhab is the village of the extremist cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani, who is accused by US and UN of being a global terrorist.
Last Wednesday February, 29, 2012, Al Qaeda threatened to attack places outside the battle field if the government troops did not withdraw from the circumference of Zinjubar within ten days.
" We, Ansar Shariah in the State of Abyan, would give the government an ultimatum of 10 days for withdrawing all the troops from the circumference of Zinjubar, and compensate the displaced persons," said Abu Hamzah Jalal Beledi, Emir Ansar Shariah in the State of Abyan, in a statement sent through SMS by an assistant of his called himself Abu Al Waleed.
" If the troops not withdrawn, we would attack outside the battle field, and we might have to implement the plan of the flooding river," said the top leader of Al Qaeda in Zinjubar.
Al Qaeda threat came only two days after the command of the troop units around Zinjubar gave an ultimatum of one week to Al Qaeda operatives to leave the city of Zinjubar otherwise the troops will storm the city.
The threats of Al Qaeda to strike outside the battle field came also one day after security authorities said they had intelligence that three car bombs are somewhere ready to implement suicide attacks against Yemeni government and Western interests in Yemen.
The security authorities are searching for the three car bombs almost everywhere, the security sources said to official media.