Yemeni Report Explores Al-Qa'ida's 'New Strategy' in Southern Yemen
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[Description of Source: Sanaa Al-Wasat Online in Arabic, website of independent political weekly newspaper; URL: http://www.alwasat-ye.net] Yemeni 'Sources': Saudi Al-Qa'ida Elements Fighting Military in Zinjibar GMP20110601139002 Sanaa Al-Watan Online in Arabic 01 Jun 11 [Unattributed report: "Sources: Saudi Nationals Among Al-Qa'ida Fighters in Zinjibar; One of them Was Killed Today in a Suicide Attack"] Sources told Al-Watan that Saudi Al-Qa'ida fighters are present in Zinjibar city, Abyan Governorate, in southern Yemen, and are fighting the Yemeni forces alongside Egyptian nationals from Al-Qa'ida. The sources added that a Saudi and a Yemeni carried out the suicide attack with a booby-trapped vehicle yesterday against the military troops that were heading to Zinjibar. This attack led to the killing of four soldiers and officers and the wounding of others. The sources noted that a number of Al-Qa'ida gunmen were able to escape to Ja'ar city after the army escalated its attacks against them. On a similar note, sources in Mudiyah District, situated 15 kilometers eastern Zinjibar, confirmed that they saw a number of Al-Qa'ida elements escape the area aboard a car and head to Shabwah. The sources added that the elements had the body of an unidentified Al-Qa'ida leading figure, who is believed to have been killed in today's aerial bombardment. The government forces in Zinjibar are confronting the Al-Qa'ida elements who took control over the city and its government facilities on Friday [ 27 May]. [Description of Source: Sanaa Al-Watan Online in Arabic -- Website of pro-government daily, focusing on local affairs; URL: http://www.alwatanye.net/] FYI -- Yemen: Armed Al-Qa'ida Groups Loot Agricultural Research Station in Abyan GMP20110602176001 Sanaa Republic of Yemen Television in Arabic 1909 GMT 02 Jun 11 At 1909 GMT on 2 June, Yemen TV, the official television station of the Yemeni Government, carries the following "breaking news" as a screen caption:
Further as warranted [Description of Source: Sanaa Republic of Yemen Television in Arabic -- Official television station of the Yemeni Government] Militants linked to al-Qaeda emboldened in Yemen By Sudarsan Raghavan, Sunday, June 12, 9:16 PM SANAA, Yemen — Islamist extremists, many suspected of links to al-Qaeda, are engaged in an intensifying struggle against government forces for control of southern Yemen, taking advantage of a growing power vacuum to create a stronghold near vital oil shipping lanes, said residents, Yemeni and U.S. officials. Over the past few weeks, the militants have swiftly taken over two towns, including Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, and surrounding areas and appear to be pushing farther south, said Yemeni security officials and residents. Increasingly, it appears as if al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate is seeking for the first time to grab and hold large swaths of territory, adding a dangerous dimension to Yemen’s crisis. U.S. and Yemeni officials worry that a loss of government control in the south could further destabilize this strategic Middle Eastern nation, already gripped by political paralysis, violent conflicts and fears of collapse. The government has not allowed journalists to visit Zinjibar. This article is based on more than a dozen interviews with provincial officials, government employees and tribal leaders from Abyan, as well as Yemeni and U.S. officials, and telephone interviews with residents of Zinjibar and surrounding areas. They describe a ghost town where streets are a canvas of destruction, struck by daily shelling, air assaults and gunfire. There’s no electricity, water or other services. Tens of thousands, mostly women and children, have fled the city. Men have stayed back only to protect their homes. The extremists man checkpoints, and any semblance of authority or governance has vanished. “They want to create an Islamic emirate,” said Mohammed al-Shuhairi, 50, a journalist in al-Kowd, near Zinjibar. “I have lived through wars here in 1978, 1986 and 1994. But I have never seen anything as bad as this.” The Islamist extremists are mostly from various Yemeni provinces but also include other Arabs and foreign fighters. They call themselves Ansar al-Sharia, or Supporters of Islamic Law, residents said. In an April 18 interview on jihadist Web sites, Abu Zubayr Adel al-Abab, described as a sharia official with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, as the Yemen branch is called, said the militants identified themselves as Ansar al-Sharia. “The name Ansar al-Shariah is what we use to introduce ourselves in areas where we work to tell people about our work and goals, and that we are on the path of Allah,” said Abab, according to a translation by the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence. Growing aggressiveness The takeover of Zinjibar underscores the growing aggressiveness and confidence of AQAP, which appears to be taking advantage of political turmoil triggered by the populist rebellion seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The crisis has further deepened since Saleh was severely wounded in a June 3 assault on his presidential palace, forcing him to fly to neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment and raising doubts about his ability to rule. Long before the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, American officials considered AQAP among the most significant threats to U.S. soil and worried that it could create a launchpad to target the United States and its allies. The capture of Zinjibar and nearby towns give the group access to the Red Sea and its vital oil shipping lanes. The militants are also well positioned to attack the port city of Aden, about 30 miles south. U.S. State Department and intelligence officials have worried that AQAP will exploit the worsening security situation in Yemen, and American officials have closely tracked the fighting in Zinjibar as a possible early test of the group’s strength in the region. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said AQAP’s sizable presence puts the country on a different tier compared with other nations hit by political unrest. “It’s the reason why we’ve had such an ongoing, robust counterterrorism cooperation,” Toner told reporters last week. “But as we’ve said many times, that cooperation isn’t hinged on one individual.” Regardless of who leads Yemen, he said, “we’re going to continue to work with the [current] government” to keep the terrorist group from gaining a foothold. The rise of the Islamist extremists also complicates a political landscape that is crowded with several groups seeking power, including youth activists, the traditional political opposition, Saleh’s loyalists, powerful tribal leaders and defected military generals. Although the extremists have not declared any national political aspirations, many fear that they could end up ruling portions of the south in the same way the Houthi rebels have done in the north, further dividing the country and eroding the authority of the central government. “If they remain, they will have great impact on Yemen’s politics,” said Qassem al-Kasadi, a ruling party lawmaker from Abyan. “They could end up ruling over portions of the south. In the areas they have taken over, they are already manning checkpoints and ordering residents to follow sharia.” Collapse in authority Yemen’s rugged south has long provided a hiding place for AQAP militants, who are shielded by sympathetic, anti-regime tribes and impenetrable mountains. One of the group’s top leaders, radical Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, whom the Obama administration has targeted for assassination, is thought to be in the south. The New Mexico-born Aulaqi has been implicated in attacks on the United States, including the 2009 Fort Hood, Tex., shootings that killed 13, and the failed Christmas Day attempt that year to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner. Last year, AQAP dispatched parcel bombs on cargo flights to the United States. It’s unclear how many of the extremists are AQAP members. Thousands of Islamist militants, including many former jihadists who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim nations, live in Yemen. Many have past links to al-Qaeda and express sympathy for the group’s core philosophies. Others have tribal, social and inspirational ties to the terrorist network. In March, the militants easily seized the small agricultural town of Jaar and surrounding areas, as government troops abandoned their posts. On May 27, extremists took control of Zinjibar, taking advantage of a collapse in authority as government forces battled tribesmen in the streets of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. Many of Saleh’s opponents accuse him of intentionally ceding ground as a warning to his allies in the United States and the Arab world, as well as ordinary Yemenis, that the nation would collapse if he were to fall from power. They say he has long exaggerated the threat of AQAP to secure funds and support from the West. “Al-Qaeda appears whenever the regime wants, and they disappear whenever the regime wants,” said Ahmed Abdullah al-Azani, another lawmaker from Abyan. “If the regime wants, it can easily kick these Islamists out.” Kasadi said he did not believe that Saleh would allow the Islamists to take over so much territory as a ploy to remain in power. “It’s not in the government’s favor if a province falls,” he said. “That shows part of the government has fallen.” ‘We left everything’ In Zinjibar, residents said government buildings and stores are shut down; many were destroyed by the shelling and airstrikes. Government officials and other sources of authority reportedly have fled. The militants, mostly bearded youths dressed in civilian clothes, are said to control the streets. They retreat during air assaults, then re-emerge when things quiet down. Residents described the extremists as polite and not oppressive. There are as many as 700 militants in Zinjibar and surrounding areas, said Yemeni security officials. In recent days, as the extremists seek to push farther south, the fighting has intensified. That forced Hussein Nasser Abdullah, 48, on Wednesday to quickly leave his home along with 35 relatives, joining thousands of other families. Some sleep inside public schools in Aden, the rest with relatives and friends. “We left everything back there,” Abdullah lamented. Ali Ashoor sent his wife and three daughters to another town. He spends his days searching for food and water. By nightfall, he locks himself inside his home and sleeps on the first floor, enveloped in darkness and fear. Saturday night illustrated why. “I can hear bullets and shelling. Both sides are attacking us,” the 56-year-old retired government employee screamed over his cellphone. “I feel my home will get bombed at any minute.” “Our future is unknown,” he added moments later. Staff writer Joby Warrick in Amman, Jordan, and a special correspondent in Sanaa contributed to this report. Yemeni Sources: Al-Qa'ida Elements Brought in To Help Fight Government Troops GMP20110614825008 London Al-Hayah Online in Arabic 14 Jun 11 [Report by Faysal Mukarram in Sanaa: "Yemen: Hadi and Opposition Agree To Postpone Discussion of Transfer of Power"] Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has reached an agreement with the opposition parties in the "Joint Meeting" to stop the escalation in the current political crisis and postpone discussion of the issue of the immediate transfer of power to the vice president (in the absence of President Ali Abdallah Salih who is undergoing treatment in Saudi Arabia), which the opposition leaders raised at the meeting held yesterday in Hadi's house and lasted one hour and a half, as the best option for sparing Yemen more repercussions and in line with the Gulf initiative. The "Joint Meeting" issued a statement after the meeting in which it asserted that "views were expressed transparently and clearly and with a high spirit of responsibility about the current situations in the country, the means and ways of getting out of the exacerbating crisis which is threatening its security, stability, and national unity, and the nature of the ways for containing its repercussions and calming the security and media situations as a step on the path of the political process that achieves the aspirations of all the political, social, civilian, and youth forces of the Yemeni people." Western sources in Sanaa asserted to Al-Hayah that US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein played a crucial role in holding the meeting between Hadi and leaders in the ruling "General People's Congress" Party and opposition leaders through intensive contacts he held in the past days with all parties to get the two sides agree on containing the crisis through negotiations in view of the dangerous deterioration in the security, economic, and political situations. These sources said the United States and its international partners have real fears that Yemen might slide into chaos and a collapse of the security situations which might enable the terrorist elements in "Al-Qa'ida" organization to widen their circle of influence and activities in several Yemeni governorates within the framework of the violent clashes they are fighting with units from the Yemeni army in Abyan Governorate (south of the country) after having succeeded in imposing their control over some areas, in particular the town of Zanjibar (the governorate's capital) which has turned into a real war stage since the end of last month. In this context, Muhammad Qahtan, the "Joint Meeting's" official spokesman, has told Al-Hayah that the vice president urged the opposition leaders during the meeting to work together at this critical stage in Yemen's history to calm the security and political situations, restore the state's authority and prestige, and control the lawlessness in some parts of the country. He added that Hadi talked clearly about the various current issues and addressing the opposition leaders said: "We face many major and grave challenges in terms of protecting Yemen as a unified and stable entity and it is a matter of to be or not to be." Qahtan added: "We felt the extent of the responsibility and the heavy burden of the current stage which Hadi is shouldering who asserted several times the importance of everyone's cooperation in order to bring Yemen out of its predicament as the future will be worse than we are expecting." Qahtan went on to say: "All of us, Vice President Hadi, we, and attending leaders from the ruling party agreed to assess the current situation and the need to seriously rally all efforts so as to transcend the repercussions, rid the country of the lawlessness, and take calming steps as the necessary prelude for proceeding with the political process without delay." On the other hand, reports coming from Abyan Governorate noted that "Al-Qa'ida" is massing hundreds, and probably thousands, of its elements after summoning them from the various Yemeni governorates to help in the battles against the government's forces in Zanjibar, Lawdar, and Ja'ar so as to tighten control of them and prevent the government forces from retaking them. Identical sources in Abyan asserted to Al-Hayah that non-Yemeni elements are fighting in "Al-Qa'ida's" ranks, among them Egyptians, Saudis, Africans, and Asians, and said the reports of eyewitnesses and displaced persons from Zanjibar confirmed these reports. The Yemeni authorities said among "Al-Qa'ida" members that were killed were elements from other governorates, among them Ma'rib, Sanaa, Al-Bayda, Shabwah, and other Yemeni areas, and pointed out that they were massing more reinforcements in the Zanjibar area in preparation for an assault on the town where clashes continued intermittently yesterday and nine people were killed. [Description of Source: London Al-Hayah Online in Arabic -- Website of influential Saudi-owned London pan-Arab daily. URL: http://www.daralhayat.com] Yemeni Sources Fear Handover of Lahij to Suspected Al-Qa'ida Armed Groups GMP20110614157001 Ma'rib Ma'rib Press in Arabic 13 Jun 11 [Unattributed report: "Similar to What Had Happened in Abyan: Lahij Governor Has Secluded Himself in His House for Six Days Due to Pressure Exerted on Him To Hand Over the Governorate to Armed Groups"]
[Description of Source: Ma'rib Ma'rib Press in Arabic -- Independent news website focusing on Yemeni affairs; URL: http://www.marebpress.net/] SABA: Al-Qaeda Cells Vandalize Agricultural Research Centre GMP20110614966183 Sanaa SABA Online in English 1906 GMT 14 Jun 11 ["Al-Qaeda Cells Vandalize Agricultural Research Centre" -- SABA Headline] [ Computer selected and disseminated without OSC editorial intervention ] (YEMEN NEWS AGENCY) - [14/June/2011] ABYAN, June 14 (Saba)- Armed groups referred to as part of sleeper cells affiliated with al-Qaeda have carried out armed robbery and acts of plundering at the Agricultural Research Station in Al-Kawd area, Abyan province. The station's general director Khudur Atrush told Saba that outlawed armed groups had perpetrated this crime and wrought havoc in the facility built 60 years ago and considered to be the very first agricultural research platform in the Gulf region. "The station's guards opposed resistance to these armed terrorist groups to protect the station. However, the absurd behaviour of the armed assailants - who are part of al-Qaeda sleeper cells - has suddenly manifested itself in light of the recent developments witnessed in the country", Atrush further noted. ‘’Carrying weapons and mortar shells, the gunmen took control of the station before plundering its content, including cars, agricultural equipment, water pumps and other laboratory and field hardware, along with various pieces of furniture such as tables, chairs, sets of drawers, air conditioners, fridges, doors, windows, and even fans and electricity poles". "This armed, aggressive and absurd act has nothing to do with the slogan of change that the Yemeni street has been raising. What happened is rather a burial of the historic legacy of Al-Kawd's Agricultural Research Station which is regarded as an asset for the country and the citizens alike. This institution cannot be the property of people led astray or seeking to access to power at any cost, even by carrying out bloodshed, manslaughter, acts of plundering and armed robbery", Atrush added. According to him, the station is dedicated to scientific and agricultural research, improving agricultural production, and achieving food security. The station's general director also qualified the attack as a cowardly one, reflecting a conspiracy hatched against the homeland born on 22 May 1990, while stressing that the Yemeni researchers are capable of re-operating the research centre as soon as possible. YA [Description of Source: Sanaa SABA in English -- Official news agency of Yemen; Internet: http://www.sabanews.gov.ye] Officials: Militants seize parts of a Yemeni city By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press 1 hr 6 mins ago SANAA, Yemen – Islamic militants emboldened by months of turmoil in Yemen launched a surprise dawn attack Wednesday on a southern city, seizing entire neighborhoods after gunfights with government forces, security officials said. One soldier was killed and three were wounded in the fighting.
The attack came a day after a senior U.S. official said Washington was worried that the ongoing unrest in Yemen could fuel connections between al-Qaida-linked militants in the Arab nation and al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia. Witnesses in Houta said some of Wednesday's attackers had Somali features and did not speak Arabic. Lahj is home to a refugee camp housing several thousand Somalis who escaped the violence in their country across the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa. Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, also said insurgents in Yemen were now operating more in the open and have been able to acquire and hold more territory. The Yemeni security officials also said that bands of militants drove through some neighborhoods in the southern port city of Aden early Wednesday, opening fire on security forces. They had no more details. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media. Islamic militants, taking advantage of more than four months of political upheaval in Yemen, had attacked and seized two other southern cities in Abyan province in late May. Massive anti-regime protests have swept much of the country since February, and rival forces are squaring up to each other in the capital Sanaa after days of fierce street fighting earlier this month. Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's president of nearly 33 years, is in neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment from wounds he suffered in a rocket attack on his compound in Sanaa. Government spokesman Abdu al-Janadi said Wednesday that investigators have determined that a "military" group was behind the June 3 attack. He did not elaborate, but he appeared to mean army units that mutinied in March against Saleh to join protesters demanding the president's immediate ouster. The capture of Zinjibar and Jaar in Abyan province and Wednesday's attacks in Houta and Aden suggest a further weakening of the central government's authority that, if left unchecked, could cause the impoverished nation in the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula to unravel or fall deeper into chaos. Residents in Shabwa, one of the al-Qaida strongholds in southern Yemen, have been reporting intensifying over flights by U.S. drones, suggesting the Americans were keeping close watch on the situation. The CIA is trying to speed up construction of a Persian Gulf base for its drones, but the process is being held up by logistic delays, U.S. officials said in Washington. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, said the base is at least eight months away from completion. The Associated Press has withheld the exact location at the request of U.S. officials. Directory: gifiles -> attach attach -> British Forces – Akrioti, Greece Griffin Fighter Squadron (84 Squadron raf) MoD announced possible Typhoon and Tornado arrivals to the base France attach -> Russia 110204 Basic Political Developments attach -> Unclassified//for official use only attach -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution Download 0.68 Mb. Share with your friends:
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