US drone attacks on Yemen welcomed by government and refused by people

Drone attacks on Yemen welcomed by government and refused by people

By Nasser Arrabyee,01/05/2013

Yemeni activists demanded American President Barack Obama to stop drones attack on their country.

In a letter addressed this week to Obama, the activists told American President  not to believe their Yemeni President Hadi who said earlier in US " I love drones". 

" Despite the approval of our Yemeni President for using drone attacks, the majority of us as Yemenis strongly refuse these strikes, and consider them violation of our country's sovereignty," said the activist in their letter which was published by media also. 

"All Yemenis are against terrorism and against Al Qaeda, but they are also against using drones to combat terrorism," said the letter. 

The last drone attack in Yemen killed a Yemeni man who turned from communist to Jihadist in a remote and mountainous village where naive local people welcomed and rallied around him as substitute for completely absent  government.  

With drones flying over many suspected areas, It seems that US drone attacks resumed after months of halt in Yemen.

The big question coming to mind of these activists and also a lot of Yemenis and Americans is : Could  those  targeted men be captured rather than killed by drones?

The answer is yes. They could be captured easily. Even more, almost all those Al Qaeda suspects killed in Yemen ( more than 100 since 2009) could have been captured including Anwar Al Awlaki, who was  the most wanted Yemeni-American terrorist before being  killed in September 30, 2011 by US drones in Al Jawf east of the country.

  

The Yemeni government would not arrest these people not only in fear of anger and retaliation of relatives but also in fear of  anger and retaliation of  other tribesmen who look at these people ( Al Qaeda members or leaders) as the most devout men and the most helpful for others because they are the most closest to Alllah.  

Tribesmen always like and respect the extremely religious men like Al Qaeda members  even though they  do not understand their thoughts and ideologies.

Hamid Radman, the local top leader of Al Qaeda in the mountainous areas of Wesab, who was killed with three other operatives two weeks ago  by US drones. His village  Mathlab is very close to headquarters of  local government and he was always with security and police men "helping"  each other. Which means there was some kind of cooperation between Radman and the local authorities of Wesab only because each side was afraid from the other. 

One day in the middle of 2012, about 16 security soldiers on two vehicles were stopped for hours by armed men of Hamid Radman nearby his village only because they( Hamid's men) did not know  where they were going and why.

"Hamid and his men told us, and they are the authority there and they should know where are we  going," said Mohammed Al Yafee who was with the soldiers at the time.

The 16 security men and their vehicles were only released after the security commander  of Wesab negotiated with Radman, said Al Yafee.

In July 2012, Hamid Radman along with more than 50 gunmen surrounded Al Dan, place where headquarters of  local government  of Wesab is located, which is close to Radman's  house and village. With his men besieging Al Dan, Radman stormed with his Kalashnikov  a meeting of the local goverment officials saying " We must uproot corrupts and establish Islamic State."

"We could have easily arrested him without single shot, but no one told us to do so," said a local security official who knows Radman very well.

The official, who asked not to be named for sensitivity of the issue, the senior security officials  in Dhammar, capital of province, and also senior officials in Sanaa, were afraid from supporters of Radman.

"Our superiors in Dhammar and Sanaa did not order us to arrest him, maybe 

because Radman's followers would take revenge on us," said the security official.

"Radman would always tell me friendly that killing a soldier or soldiers 

( meaning Yemeni soldiers) is  permissible necessity for the time being, because the soldier now is the barrier between us and the big enemy, America," said the official. 

"But if the strike comes  from the sky, the followers will be confused and not know who to take revenge on, maybe this is what our superiors think," said the official. 

 Radman along with three others of his fighters were buried as " Martyrs" in their home village of  Mathlab on April 18, 2013 after being charred and cut into pieces in their car which was completely burned and destroyed by US drones one day before  nearby Radman's  house in Wesab.

Radman, was  almost the absolute ruler of Wesab  and neighboring areas, about 200 km south west of Yemeni capital Sanaa,for more than three years. He was not ruling by force but by content of local people who were looking for a ruler who can solve their daily  problems when the government is  completely absent. 

In 1980s,  Radman was communist and he was sent by  his Yemen socialist party to Cuba where he studied economy  for 4 years and returned  to Yemen in  1991. Then  he was sentenced to death for killing one of his cousins. He was released in 1999 because his cousins pardoned him shortly before he was executed. In the prison he met two would-be Al Qaeda leaders. He met Kasem Al Raimi, the now 3rd commander of Al Qaeda in Yemen, and Abdul Rehamn Al Jazaeri, Algerian Jihadist who is no longer in Yemen now.  

 In 2004, he tried to go for Jihad in Iraq but he was captured in Yemen airport before leaving for Iraq and he was put in intelligence prison. In 2009, he was released from intelligence prison after he met many more  of Al Qaeda veterans inside the prison. He returned to his village with retaliatory thoughts and  rosy ideas of establishing the "State of Justice, the Islamic State".

"Every body is sad, everybody is asking who would solve our problems now ?," said Ali Abdullah from local hospital of the village of Mathlab where he works as a laboratory technician. 

" Hamid was very popular, everyone would like him and respect him as soon as he sees him let alone if he  solves his  problem," he added. 

"If he was from Al Qaeda, then he made the people like Al Qaeda, he did very well to  improve the bad image of Al Qaeda for some people here who hate Al Qaeda," said Ali.

The Yemeni government ignored and let Hamid do whatever he wants for years not only because Wesab is not important and remote mountainous to it but also the Yemeni government ignored when it knew that Wesab became the back garden of Al Qaeda fighters coming from many volatile areas like Abyan and Shabwah.

Al Qaeda used to send tens, if not hundreds, of those injured in Abyan battles of last year to such a  remote and mountainous area for  treatment under the supervision of thief local leader Hamid Radman.

He  was not only a trustworthy local commander of  Al Qaeda but also he was the police man, the judge, the minister of water, education, health, and everything for the people in ignored  Wesab.

The officials including director of Wesab and security director stay  months and months in their homes and they come only for salaries and get back quickly, according to many residents who were asked why people liked Radman?

Even worse, the low level officials who kept attending and doing their jobs were threatened to be left alone for Radman and his militants.

" One day I had arguments with the intelligence officer who is assigned to monitor Radman's activities, and he was a little bit angry with me so he said: we will leave you alone for Radman if you do not listen to me," said the low-level security official who identified himself only as Yahya.

 " Everything about Radman was reported to the intelligence senior officials but they did nothing more than threatening us with this guy," added  Yahya.

Radman's village Mathlab  is located in Juar mountain, one of the highest mountains in Yemen. Wesab in general is a series of mountains, the highest ever is Juar which overlooks the Red Sea. Poverty and ignorance and illiteracy  is widely spread in these areas which look like Tora Pora of Afghanistan. 

Although US drones have been sporadically  flying over Wesab for about six months, the local people were surprised by the drone strikes.

"We thought we  are not important enough for American drones," said Abdu Morshid, one of the social figures in the area.

"To mention our name ( Wesab) with drones  is better than no mention at all," said Murshid who talked about a great sufferings of the local population. 

However, Murshid said, "Killing this man will not solve the problem without solving the development problems of the people who do not care about Al Qaeda and cares only for their food."

))))))