Yemeni Report Explores Al-Qa'ida's 'New Strategy' in Southern Yemen

[Description of Source: Sanaa 26 September.net in Arabic -- Yemeni Armed Forces' official news website; URL: http://www.26sep.net/]

Yemeni Papers Carry Reports on Clashes in Ja'ar Between Army, Gunmen

GMP20110408195002 Yemen -- OSC Summary in Arabic 08 Apr 11

On 8 April, Al-Masdar Online and Ma'rib Press carry two reports on clashes in Ja'ar, Abyan Governorate. Following is a summary of these reports:

Sanaa Al-Masdar Online in Arabic (Website of independent weekly newspaper, critical of government policies; URL: http://www.al-masdar.com/) carries a 300-word report saying that "violent clashes broke out today in the outskirts of the city of Ja'ar in Abyan Governorate, southern Yemen, between gunmen and the Army Forces which sent a military campaign in an attempt to take control of Ja'ar."

The report cites Al-Masdar Online correspondent Ziyad al-Mihwari as saying that a "military campaign was mobilized since early morning from the 25th Mechanized Brigade located southeastern Zinjibar, capital of the governorate, with tanks, artillery, and dozens of military units."

Al-Mihwari is further cited as adding that "clashes erupted between the gunmen and the Army Forces in the village of Al-Makhzan three kilometers from Ja'ar, where gun and heavy artillery fire was heard."

The report cites local sources as saying that "armed men from the residents of the city of Ja'ar and neighboring regions had seized control of the city after security forces withdrew and handed them the headquarters of the security forces about two weeks ago."

The report further says that "there were blackouts in some areas in Abyan after some high-tension cables were cut amid the clashes."

The report further says that "opposition forces accused President Salih of ordering the withdrawal of security forces for the sake of allowing radical gunmen to take control of some regions. The objective of this move was to 'scare' the international community with the threat posed by Al-Qa'ida which is active in Yemen. "

Ma'rib Ma'rib Press in Arabic (Independent news website focusing on Yemeni affairs; URL: http://www.marebpress.net/) carries a 200-word report, saying: "Today, Army units shelled areas where Jihadist groups had been stationed in Ja'ar, Abyan Governorate."

The report adds that "since morning, army forces, using tanks, artillery, and machineguns, have been shelling locations believed to host groups affiliated with Al-Qa'ida. Thus far, there has been no information as to the damage caused by the shelling except material damage to the building of the Malaria Institute and the home of a resident in the region of Al-Makhzan."

The report cites unnamed eyewitnesses in Ja'ar as saying that they saw "some shells explode in the air, the shrapnel of which fell on homes without causing any injuries worth mentioning." The eyewitnesses are further cited as saying that "the local Abyan radio station, which had fallen under the control of the mujahidin, repeatedly warned residents in Ja'ar, Al-Makhzan, and neighboring villages against approaching areas where the army and its weapons were located. They said in their statements that they had cars loaded with explosives which they were planning to detonate at any moment."

The report adds that "power has been completely cut off from the city of Zinjibar since 1000 [ 0700 GMT] because of the damage caused to the power lines by the shelling."

Al-Malahim Releases AQAP's Al-Rubaysh Audio Calling On Govt Soldiers To Revolt

FEA20110409016612 - OSC Feature - Global Jihad Network 09 Apr 11

[Audio statement produced by the Al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production, the media arm of Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and disseminated by the Al-Fajr Media Center, attributed to AQAP's member Ibrahim Bin-Sulayman al-Rubaysh; place and date not given: "He Sells His Religion for Worldly Gains" -- "Mufakkirat al-Jihad al-Alami," user number 6, posted links to download the 10-minute 36-second audio; for a copy of the audio, contact GSG_GVP_VideoOps@rccb.osis.gov or the OSC Customer Center at (800) 205-8615. Selected audio also available at OpenSource.gov]

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,

The Al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production

Presents:

An audio statement, entitled:

"He Sells His Religion for Worldly Gains"

By Shaykh Ibrahim Bin-Sulayman Al-Rubaysh, May God Protect Him

To download the statement, use the following password:

[A password is posted here.]

[Various links to the audio statement are posted here.]

Supplicate to God for your Mujahidin brothers.

Your brothers at:

Al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production,

Source: Al-Fajr Media Center.

[A translation of the audio statement follows:]

[Unidentified voiceover says:]

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,

The Al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production presents a statement entitled: "He Sells His Religion for Worldly Gains," by the revered Shaykh Ibrahim Bin-Sulayman al-Rubaysh, may God the Almighty protect him.

[Ibrahim al-Rubaysh starts his statement as follows:]

Praise be to God, the Lord of all creation. Prayers and peace be upon the most honorable of the prophets and messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family, his companions, and those who follow them with good deeds until the Day of Judgment.

Hereafter:

After the events of 11 September, the war between the party of the Merciful God and the party of the devil intensified, and the banner soared at the outset and became clear. It started to become clearer when the obeyed and fool enemy of God [derogatory reference to former US President George W Bush Jr] said: "Whoever is not with us is against us." Still, the banner is getting clearer and clearer as time passes, but there is still some ambiguity to some Muslims. Some Muslims are still disapproving the mujahidin's killing of soldiers belonging to Ali Abdallah Salih or to the other tyrants. Their disapproval comes in various pretenses that give way under clear evidence that is scrutinized by any impartial person.

Therefore, this message has come as an explanation for those who disapprove and as an argument against the soldiers so that they apologize to God in the hope that they might fear Him.

O soldier, you who have been described by some people as miserable, do you know the magnitude of your offense?

"If you are not aware, that is a calamity; and if you are aware, it is even a greater calamity," [a poetic verse].

Your ruler, who has declared his support to the United States without any hesitation, would not have remained [in power] had he not seen you carrying your weapon to secure his way, guard his home, carry out his orders without questioning them, and give priority to his order over that of God. If someone condemned your action, your answer would be: "I am just a servant who only carries out orders," so you became a servant to your ruler rather than to God.

God says: "Is it not His to create and to govern?" [Partial Koranic verse, Al-A'raf, 7:54] As for you, your affairs are in the hands of your ruler, and accordingly, your stance is on the side of the enemies of Islam, the Crusaders and their supporters, and God says: "And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them," [partial Koranic verse, Al-Ma'idah, 5:51]

The Prophet, God's prayers and peace be upon him says in the Hadith: "Drive the polytheists out of the Arab peninsula," and here you are guarding them and ensuring that they continue to stay and you are fighting those who call for driving them out of the Arab peninsula.

In the Name of God, you soldier, who else other than you guards the courts, which implement the positive laws that are worshiped instead of God? Who, other than you, forces the people to be governed by these laws and drives them to the courts in chains? Who executes its judgments and secures its order? Is it not your job to protect the positive law and force people to adhere to it? Yes O soldier, God has prohibited usury, but you sit to guard the banks of usury and the courts that govern them. God says: "O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and give up what remains of your demand for usury, if ye are indeed believers. For if you do it not, then know that you are at war with God and H is Apostle," [Koranic verses, Al-Baqarah, 2:278-279].

But you have elected to be one of the fiercest fighters against God when to comes to usury, and you carried your weapon in that cause, effectively doing more for it than what is done by those who actually profit from it or legislate in its favor. The shame is that you do not get anything in return but the meager crumbs; hence you neither managed to mend your religion, nor made any gains for your worldly affairs. What a miserable state you are in!

Have you seen the embassies of the enemy that are opened to spy on Muslims and to fight them? Shaykh Abu-Ali al-Harithi, God rest his soul, was killed as a result of the coordination with theses embassies. Shaykh Muhammad al-Mu'ayid was lured as a result of their planning and Shaykh Anwar al-Awlaqi was detained based on their demands.

These embassies facilitate the movements of the Christian missionaries in the Arab peninsula, and they would not have come if it were not for the protection you have provided to them. The cells in the prisons are filled with mujahidin, religious scholars, and knowledge seekers whose houses have been raided and whose families have been terrorized and led away in chains for no guilt on their part other than carrying out jihad in the cause of God.

Some of those detained mujahidin were only accused of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of them were not even willing to engage in fighting against their own government. Thus, there was no reason to imprison them other than the [government's] open collaboration with the United States, to which you, O miserable soldier, are its obeying soldier.

Who has raided Hawtat Faqih Ali [the place of the religious scholar Ali] and killed its Shaykh, Abdallah al-Mihdar (God rest his soul); sabotaged his house; looted it; sabotaged and looted other Muslims' houses; and targeted women, children, and even animals with sniper shots; was it not you, O soldier?

Who transgressed against the Muslims' houses in Lawdar, destroyed some of them, and killed people? Was that Obama, Bush, Ali Abdallah Salih, or you, O miserable soldier?

Who terrorized Muslims in Ma'rib, destroyed houses and mosques, and killed elderly people?

Who is killing the demonstrators with his bullets now? Who ran a woman over in Hadramawt? Who throws people in prisons but you, O soldier?

After all this, some people come to blame us because we want to kill you, arguing that it is not permissible because you pray and you fast. What prayer [are they talking about] after all this criminal acts on your part?

Those who were killed by Abu-Bakr al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him, and judged them as apostates, used to pray and fast, but what is the use of praying and fasting if the essence of monotheism has been nullified?

Muhammad Ibn-abd-al-Wahhab, may God rest his soul, fought some people and indeed declared them to be infidels while they had performed praying and fasting. Ibn-Ghannam, a student of Muhammad Ibn-abd-al-Wahhab narrated the events of that age in his book Tarikh Najd [History of Najd], describing these battles as they were between Muslims and polytheists, stating that the Muslims [in these battles] were victorious over the polytheists and took spoils of war, although those described as polytheists were those who fasted and prayed.

At that time, there were people among the polytheists who did not agree with their tribes in their polytheism, but they fought along with them against the call to monotheism. Muhammad Ibn-abd-al-Wahhab declared their apostasy against Islam, and according to my knowledge, there were many scholars of evil in the age of Ibn-abd-al-Wahhab fighting against him the fiercest of wars.

Would you understand that if a man adopted an idol and commanded the people to worship it, forcing them to do so, then demanded a guard for that idol and its worshippers and steered the people to worship that hated idol? A Muslim man, who fasts and prays, comes and takes on this job for a few dirhams. He comes to bear arms and guard idols, forcing the people to worship them. In doing so, he is at the same time uttering the two pledges of Islam [stating that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his Prophet] and performs praying and fasting. Is this a [true] Muslim? No, by God, even if he were to fast the fast of David (may peace be upon him) and prayed the prayers of Ibn-al-Zubayr.

This is an example of this miserable soldier: He bears arms, aids the Crusaders, and upholds the positive laws that worship those beneath God. He drives the people toward them in chains and shackles. He destroys the houses of those who oppose this, lies in wait for the youth at the checkpoints, and files reports against them. Will the oppressive regimes in the lands of the Muslims exist without this miserable soldier?

Those who besiege our brothers in Gaza, guard the borders so that no one can slip through them, and kill Muslims in the tunnels [which supposedly run under the Egyptian borders with Gaza] under the pretext of carrying out orders; are those [soldiers] who fast and pray uttering the two pledges of Islam.

Those who do these things are only carrying out their orders. Thus, the slave commanded there is like the slave commanded here [in Yemen]. There are in the American army people from among our countrymen, praying in the same direction and fasting along with us, and yet they participate in the war against the Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan out of fear for their livelihood.

There are among them those who supervised the instances of defamation to the Koran in the prisons of Cuba [Guantanamo Bay], and they justified this by saying that they had received orders from the general to do so, and yet, at the same time, they had performed praying and fasting. But the difference between the US soldier and the soldier of its agents is that one of them receives orders from the Crusaders directly, while the other has an agent, someone from among our countrymen, functioning as a middleman between him and the Crusaders.

I have heard some people making an excuse for the soldier by saying that he did that out of seeking his livelihood. This argument refers to a defect in the monotheism of those who make it.

If one does not have strong faith that God is his steadfast and strong Provider, he will seek his livelihood in disobedience to God. Would you consider that a person seeking his livelihood is permitted to do so by way of usury, bribery, theft, or banditry? There is no doubt that no one says it is permissible to do these things. Thus, how could we forbid someone to seek his livelihood in those ways and permit him to seek his livelihood by way of supporting the polytheists against the Muslims, upholding the positive laws, and oppressing the worshippers of God?

I searched in the Book of God [the Koran] and in the Sunnah of His messenger, prayers and peace of God be upon him, and I found nothing in them that permits the oppression of people out of fear for one's livelihood.

Is the bread of the soldier more sacred than the sanctity of the houses of Muslims that he raids, terrorizing those inside them? Is the bread of the soldier more sacred than the freedom of the mujahidin, whom he hunts down and imprisons for many years? I am astonished by those who oppose the killing of a soldier, as killing him orphans his children, widows his wife, and saddens his parents. Then, do those whom the soldier kills have no fathers, mothers, wives, or children? When the soldier kills them, he is not blamed; but when the mujahidin kill the soldier, some hasten to blame and condemn them. Did the devil make excuses for his party, and spread false claims for their sake? Or did the mujahidin not have anyone to mourn for them?

The mujahidin have taken upon themselves a pledge to fight the Crusaders and those in their ranks, not distinguishing between red or white, Arab or non-Arab. All are ruled by God alike. We will fight those who stand with them until we reach them or die in the process. Those who warn are excused.

O soldier, you may claim that you have been forced. Tell me, who forced you to go to this line of work in seeking employment? Who forced you to wear this uniform and go out in the campaigns of causing harm to the worshippers of God and carrying out the demands of the Crusaders? Who forced you to man the checkpoints, to lie in wait for the mujahidin, and to search for their best people? Is this the seeking of livelihood? We say to you that those other than you receive their livelihood from God without engaging in this work. Seek your livelihood by good means, or at the least, by a means that makes your soul at peace and minimizes the harm to the worshippers of God. O soldier, save yourself before God's fate catches up with you. Reform yourself before God's judgment is made upon you, and then you will lose this world and the hereafter. That would be the ultimate loss. Tell me, what keeps you where you are? You have corrupted your religion. As for this world, the majority of the people, regardless of their deeds, earn more than you do. Thus, save yourself, if you have need for it. There were people, who embraced Islam, but they did not emigrate, and they had refrained from going forth in the Battle of Badr. Therefore, the Prophet, may the prayers and peace of God be upon him, did not accept the claim of Islam from them, and God revealed the following verse about them: "When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls, they say: 'In what (plight) Were ye?' They reply: 'Weak and oppressed were we in the earth.' They say: 'Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (From evil)?' Such men will find their abode in Hell, - What an evil refuge!" [Koranic verse, Al-Nisa, 4:97]

Look at yourself before your time comes, and by God, even if you live your life like those who suffer from poverty and hunger, this is better than working in something by which you will reap ephemeral gains in this world only. And what is the use of this world if religion is corrupted?

O God, do not make this world our greatest concern or the extent of our knowledge. Do not make hellfire our abode. O God, make us see the truth and let us follow it. Make us see falsehood and keep us away from it. Do not let falsehood lead us astray so that we deviate from the truth. O God, adorn us with the adornment of faith; make us tools of redemption; place upon us the seal of martyrdom in your cause; and let us end up with the prophets, righteous believers, martyrs, and the best companions among them.

Our final supplications are: Praise be to God, the Lord of all creation.

[The same unidentified voiceover says:]

In conclusion, accept greetings from your brothers at the Al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production.

[To view the vernacular, click here.]

[Description of Source: Global Jihad Network in Arabic -- Recently monitored jihadist website; a permanent descriptor will be issued following a review of the website's behavior over time; URL: www.aljahad.com/vb]

Xinhua: Yemeni Army Forces Shell Al-Qaida Positions in South

CPP20110409968122 Beijing Xinhua in English 1436 GMT 09 Apr 11

[Xinhua: "Yemeni Army Forces Shell Al-Qaida Positions in South"]

[Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention]

ADEN, Yemen, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni army forces launched a campaign Saturday targeting a number of al-Qaida sites in Jaar city in the southern province of Abyan, a military officer told Xinhua.

The army forces opened heavy fires since Saturday morning with tanks and artilleries on the positions believed to belong to al- Qaida in Jaar to regain control, the officer said on condition of anonymity.

Witness Atef Saleh al-Radah told Xinhua by phone that a lot of shells were seen exploding in the air and many fragments were falling around houses without causing any injuries till now.

The sounds of shells and guns are still reverberating in the region, al-Radah said.

Dozens of residents moved to other areas for fear of the clashes, according to local witnesses.

[Description of Source: Beijing Xinhua in English -- China's official news service for English-language audiences (New China News Agency)]

Xinhua: Yemen Al-Qaida Wing Kills Senior Counter-Terror Officer in Abyan

CPP20110410968072 Beijing Xinhua in English 1016 GMT 10 Apr 11

[Xinhua: "Yemen Al-Qaida Wing Kills Senior Counter-Terror Officer in Abyan"]

[Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention]

SANAA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Militants of Yemen-based al-Qaida wing shot dead a senior counter-terrorism officer in southern troubled province of Abyan on Sunday pre-dawn, provincial intelligence official told Xinhua.

"Militants of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsulas (AQAP) stormed the home of Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Gharamh in Lodar city in Abyan, shot him dead", the official told Xinhua by phone, requesting anonymity.

"Gharamh was a very active agent and expert in counter- terrorism operations against AQAP," the official said, adding that "the highest security leadership has recently suspended counter- terrorism operations in the south of the country until Saturday."

On Saturday, Yemeni army forces launched a campaign targeted a number of al-Qaida sites in Jaar city in Abyan, a military officer told Xinhua.

The campaign came a day after the terrorist group declared through the Abyan Radio Station that they killed dozens of government troops and destroyed three tanks in Jaar.

Abyan, some 480 km south of the capital Sanaa, is a key stronghold of resurgent al-Qaida wing which have carried out frequent attacks against the Yemeni security and military personnel since 2009.

Yemen has witnessed weeks-long anti-government protests demanding an immediate end to the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The political crisis recently resulted in deterioration of security stability after the government pulled the police out from some towns of major provinces under pretext of avoiding friction with protesters.

[Description of Source: Beijing Xinhua in English -- China's official news service for English-language audiences (New China News Agency)]

Xinhua: Al-Qaida of Yemen's Abyan Force Government Army Back To Aden

CPP20110410968126 Beijing Xinhua in English 1518 GMT 10 Apr 11

[Xinhua: "Al-Qaida of Yemen's Abyan Force Government Army Back To Aden"]

[Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention]

SANAA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni army withdrew late on Saturday from several regions in southern province of Abyan to the eastern edges of the southern port city of Aden following fierce battle with al-Qaida militants, local intelligence official said.