No stability with Al Qaeda
By Nasser Arrabyee,06/04/2012
Two suicide bombers killed themselves when they tried to bomb the headquarters of Yemeni intelligence in the southern coastal city of Aden, said an official statement early Friday.
The two bombers, believed to be Al Qaeda members, were riding a motor cycle nearby the intelligence building in Al Mansoura area in Aden.
One of them was identified as Fawaz Al Subaihi while investigations are going to identify the other and reveal more details about the suicide bombing that resulted in no causalities or damages other than the two bombers and their motorcycle.
Yemen now is witnessing unprecedented confrontations between the government troops, supported mainly by American and Saudi governments, and Al Qaeda fighters who exploited the chaos and unrest of the political crisis which started early 2011with the so-called Arab Spring Wave.
The ministry of interior confirmed on Friday previous reports that more than 100 terrorists were killed in the southern province of Abyan and areas around it only over the last two days.
Al Qaeda was was the biggest beneficiary of Yemen's unrest during 2011. Now, with Yemen returning gradually to normal with regional and international support, Al Qaeda has become the biggest target to destroy as a condition Yemen's stability.
More than 40 Al Qaeda fighters were killed on Tuesday April 3, 2012, when Yemeni forces restored a military position controlled earlier in the week by Al Qaeda militants in the southern province of Lahj.
About 50 soldiers were killed, 23 of them were executed after being arrested, when Al Qaeda surprisingly attacked the military position of Al Haroor, between the Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate of Jaar and the province of Lahj, the closer to Aden, capital of the south.
In an obvious retaliation for killing four senior operatives in their hiding place of Shabwah by a US drone attack last Friday March 30, 2012, Al Qaeda implemented at least six terrorist operations in Shabwah , Lahj, Sayoun and Mukalla.
And according to security sources, Al Qaeda is even more trying to implement terrorist operations against senior military and security officials and government and western interests in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
With these terrorist attacks increasing in Yemen, the US Ambassodor in Sanaa Gerald Feiestein repeatedly accused the spiritual leader of the largest Islamist party, extremist cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani of supporting terrorism.
However, Al Zandani's party, Islah, defended his leader in an officials statement on Sunday April 1st, 2012, saying the accusations were based on wrong information given to US administration by the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime.
Last week, Ambassodor Feierstein said in press statements that US and international community are concerned from Al Zandani and his followers and his supporters.
Al Zandani's party, Islah, now leads the political coalition which rules Yemen after Saleh is gone.
The coalition, locally known as Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs), includes four other main parties , Socialists and Nasserites ( Arab-pan nationalists), two small Islamic Shiite parties.
Some leaders of Islah party like Al Zanafani, and majority of it's members always say that Al Qaeda is not existing at all in Yemen and it is only "President" Saleh who makes it to get money from America and the west.
This position has not changed after Saleh is gone from the power. Some leaders and members of Islah say clearly in all meetings and arguments: there are people who claim to be Al Qaeda but they are in fact only working with Ali Abdullah Saleh, and there are people who are doing Jihad which is the " essence of Islam", and those must be supported by every Muslim.
Those are not Al Qaeda but they are Mujahideen. Those people, who call Al Qaeda Mujahideen,started to demand the new President Abdul Rabu Mansour Hadi to stop any cooperation with the Americans that would violate the "Yemeni sovereignty", in a very obvious reference to the cooperation between Yemen and US to fight terrorism.
Al Zandani now is hiding in his tribal area Arhab,35 km north of Sanaa international airpot.
Local sources from Arhab said that the tribal leader Mansour Al Hanek is now leading groups of militants against a number of check points in Arhab and Nehm.
Al Hanek is leading member in the Islamist party, Islah, and a number of his relatives were killed in Arhab and Zinjubar as Al Qaeda members.
The last one was the middle level leader of Al Qaeda Mohammed Al Hanek who was killed last month in Zinjubar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan, an Al Qaeda-declared Islamic Emirate.
The sources told the weekly if the militants succeed in removing and controlling the military check points, then they would start to attack the main military camps like Assama and 63 brigades, and this will enable them to control the international airport of Sana’a and all eastern and northern exits and entrances.
The sources also said that Al Qaeda and tribal militants under the leadership of Al Hanek continued shelling on Monday from the hill of Wasel to the military camps of the republican guards in Arhab, 35 km north of the airport of Sana’a.
The trenches and barricades are being belt everywhere nowadays in preparation for a big battle against the government troops in the areas of Arhab and Nehm where about 4 brigades have been positioning since early 1980s, the sources added.
The minister of defense, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed said on Sunday in the Parliament he would resign within two weeks if the security and military tension is not calmed down inside and outside Sana’a.
The minister of defense has no real power as long as the army is split between the defected general Ali Muhsen and the son of the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who leads the republican guards, the most highly trained and qualified army, which represents more than two thirds of the army.
Al Qaeda and defected troops and tribesmen loyal to the Islamist party, Islah, continued to attack the military camps positioned in northern and eastern outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sana’a, said a statement by tribal leaders on Monday.
“Those who repeatedly attack the military camps in Arhab and Nehm areas are the defected troops of the first armored division, Al Qaeda fighters, and a few number of mercenary tribesmen from Arhab and Nehm ,” said the statement which was sent to local media in the name of the tribal leaders of Arhab and Nehm.
Earlier in the week, a similar statement also in the name of other tribal leaders of Arhab and Nehm, was issued to deny any presence of Al Qaeda in these two areas.
The statement said it was only the republican guards troops who were shelling the areas of Arhab and Nehm for about one year now only because the tribesmen in these areas supported the uprising against the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Three Philipinos men were released on Wednesday April 4, 2012, after two weeks in the hands of tribal captors,
Earlier in the week, the men from Philippines kidnapped two weeks ago in eastern Yemen appealed Tuesday to the Yemeni and Philippinos governments to rescue their lives from death.
The 40-year old Gonet Alcantara, one of the three hostages, told the Weekly over phone from somewhere in Mareb where they have been held for two weeks now, “the captors keep telling us, if their demands are not met, they will kill us.”
“So we want the Yemeni government and our government to do every thing to rescue our lives from death,” said Alcantara, the oldest of the three hostages.
“The captors are very serious, and our situation is very bad now.”
Gonet Alcantara, and his colleagues, Roque Soriano,36, and Fredrick Dadives,25, were working with the Sana’a-based company, Yemen Catering International (YCI).
The three of them were kidnapped in Mareb two weeks ago while in their way to the far eastern city of Mukalla, the capital of Hudhrmout.
The kidnapper, the tribal leader Ali Hussein Al Zaydi, is demanding the release of two men: his son and another one from the same tribe who are in the prison of the government in Sana’a.
“Our people :Abdul Ghani Ali Hussein Al Zaydi, and Khaled Al Kebsi, were put in prison by the security director of Sana’a (Rezk Al Jawfi) one month ago without any reason,” said Adul Azeez Al Zaydi, a relative of the captor, in an interview with the Weekly.
“The three hostages will be released unharmed when our men are released,” he said.
“Putting our men in prison was unfair, if this kidnapping was unfair,” Addul Azeez Al Zaydi added.
The hostages complained from deterioration of their health.
“We have been here for 14 days now without any shower or any change of our clothes,” said Gonet Alcantara.
“The three of us are in one small room, very hot, without electricity, and we cannot go outside at all,” he added.
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