Nasser
Arrabyee, 16/08/2013
The Yemen Al
Qaeda second man might have been killed in one of the 13 recent drone attacks
on Yemen where more than 40 Al Qaeda suspects killed over 10 days.
The Saudi
national Ibrahim Al Rubaish, deputy head of AQAP, was the second target of
those attacks that happened on July 30th, 2013 in Nakabah area, district of
Sayeed district of southern province of Shabwah.
Earlier this
month, and amid the media frenzy about big imminent terror attacks, the Yemeni
government published names of 25 men labeled as terrorists behind the security
and military assassinations and those terror threats.
The top of
that list was the Saudi Ibrahim Al Rubaish who replaced the slain Saudi
Saeed Shihri as deputy of AQAP, though not yet officially announced as deputy.
If death of Al Rubaish is confirmed, this would be a significant success for
these recent drone attacks.
" I am
not excluding the death of Ibrahim Al Rubaish in Nakabah drone strike, but we
have to wait for statements from Al Qaeda," said Qaeda expert, Yemen
researcher Abdul Razak Al Jamal who had access into inner circles and
interviewed many leaders of Al Qaeda.
Security
sources said that 3 of the 25 were arrested this week in neighborhood of
Sunainah, western part of the capital Sanaa where young people calling
themselves Shabab Mujahid, or Jihadist youth. There are at least 2 more similar
neighborhoods in Sanaa city: Musaik and Sawan known to many locals as
neighborhoods of Jihadists activities.
Yemen
President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi met US ambassador to Sanaa Gerald Feiestein on
Tuesday August 13th, the first day after Eid AlFetr holidays.
Although US
embassy was still closed due to alleged terror threats, the meeting between
Hadi and Feierstien gave impression that the two governments felt they
overreacted the threats to the extent that they helped Al Qaeda in a way or
another. The embassy would remain closed even after such a meeting, according
to diplomatic sources.
The meeting
was to discuss the terror threats and alerts that led to closures of
embassies and evacuation of staff from Sanaa, according to the official news
agency.
The minister
of defense, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed shortly after the meeting of Hadi and
Feierstien played down the terror threats as " limited" saying that
security forces deal with them wisely capably.
Security
sources, however, said that authorities are taking serious specific
threats released this week by Qaeda top leader Nasser Al Wuhayshi to storm
prisons and let his men go.
The sources
said that about 60 Qaeda prisoners were transferred from the intelligence
maximum security prisons in Sanaa and Aden to secret places in the country as
precautionary measures after such threats.
''We ask God
to make us a cause for unlocking your incarceration and relieving your agony,''
said Al Wuhayshi in a statement published Monday by Qaeda-linked website that
was described by experts as reliable. The words of this sentence indicate that
suicide bombing can be used for breaking the jails where Al Qaeda prisoners
have been languishing for a long time.
The expert
Al Jamal said the statement was important to say "We are still here"
to raise morale of remaining fighters and give hope for prisoners and
sympathizes.
Also
he belittled the terror threats came from the two governments of Yemen
and US.
" The
US and Yemen governments were very skillful in creating justifications
for these drone attacks this time, only to reduce the reactions of the
people," said Al Jamal.
He said
" The new thing this time is that the Americans with Yemeni cooperation recorded
many targets and they wanted to strike them all at once , but before the
strikes they were concerned about angry reactions," He said.
Al Jamal
criticized the simi-ruling Muslim brotherhood and wondered why they kept silent
after all these interventions and violation of sovereignty.
"They
were talking day and night about violation of sovereignty now they are not, if
they keep silent over drone attacks, they would be silent also over
any direct American occupation," said Al Jamal.
The recent drone
attacks caused a lot of anger and resentment especially after a lot of
Yemenis saw with their eyes drones flying over their capital Sanaa
during Eid holidays.
Many
activists of twitter and Facebook made a lot critical comments and jokes about
President Hadi's last visit to White House. Drones started while Hadi was still
paying thar official visit to US late last July.
The drone
attack of August 7th killed three brothers in Damashekah Abeidah Mareb,
and the ministry of interior labeled them as terrorists and identified
them as :1- Abdullah Kayed Salem Afra, 2-Al Hassan Kayed Salem
Afraj 3-Al Hussein Kayed Salem Aftaj, From Raghan, Dahm tribe, Mareb
east of the country.
My local
sources said the older brother, Abdullah is known to everyone as
Qaeda member, he started by making money from Anwar Al Awlaki in return for
easing his movements between Mareb, Al Jawf and Shabwah.
Local
sources are not sure about the two younger brothers.
However,
another source from Mareb ( closer to the youth meaning Qaeda) told
me that all the three brothers were with the "youth" meaning
Al Qaeda.
For
strike of August 6th, in Markha area of Shabwah, the locals found only
their man from the neighboring village of Naseen tribe, Sarhan Abdullah Ali Al
Dhumluki.
His
family and tribe came immediately after the strike and found him only. Family
and relatives buried Sarhan immediately. One of those who attended the
funeral said Sarhan was known as Qaeda local leader.
Qaeda
men came before local residents and took 4 dead bodies, according to the
locals.
However, in
the strike of August 1, Al Qaeda came after the strike and took all victims
including a local young man who was given only a ride by Al Qaeda men who were
driving nearby his village At Wadi Ser between Sayoun and Kutn. All the
men were Saudis according to locals.
Locals
identified them as Makdad Al Sayeri and two of his brothers.
The local
man, killed was from a known family called Ishak.
Local residents
from Al Kutn told me that another Qaeda car came and took all dead
bodies including the local man, who had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Until now
the family of Ishak is looking for their son in his 20s not a child
as reported by some media.
"
Although we need another way to fight Qaeda other than the drones, but we
are not angry at all, we do not know those people, they are Saudis and wanted
by their government and they are doing problems to us by staying here,"
said Aref..
"For
our son who was killed with them, that was his fate to be with them at that
time," said Aref over phone from Al Kutn.
