The AQAP number 3 Fahd al-Qasu said that the Yemen forces did not get into Zinjubar city and that the AQAP fighters or Mujahidin did not withdraw from Zinjubar.
In an interview with al-Quds al-Arabi, al-Qasu said that all the Yemen army could do was opening a road for supplying the 25th Mechanical brigade.
He added that the AQAP or Ansar al-Sharia’a have supported the fighters in Arhab district and in Taiz because he said that was their duty to support the oppressed Muslims.
Al-Qasu admitted that Somali fighters joined them in their fight with Yemen army.
He also denied that the security forces in Abyan had surrendered their camps to the AQAP fightes.
“All these news were fabrications by some parties that like to give a deformed image about the Mujahidin, we have presented a lot of martyrs for forcing the security forces out of Zinjubar and they fled to the camp of the 25th brigade,” said al-Qasu.
He said that they captured over 50 security personnel as prisoners of war and that they released them after they pledged to not fight the AQAP any more.
At least five brigades took part in the battle for liberating Zinjubar from the AQAP insurgents and could restore most of Zinjubar city the provincials capital of Abyan province last week.
Yemen ministry of defense announced victory on al-Qaeda and Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh thanked the United States and Saudi Arabia for the logistic and intelligence support.
Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhli and al-Qasu said that the United States took part in the battles through bombing Zinjubar using drones and Cruz Missiles.
“The battle was between the Mujahidin and the 25th brigade at the outskirts of Zinjubar and there were some other brigades that took part in the battle among them the 31st Republican Guards brigade, 25th mechanical brigade, supported by the US, Saudi and Yemeni air forces as well as the US destroyers that entered to the Yemeni regional waters to attack us using Cruz and other missiles,” said al-Qasu.
Al-Qasu denied that the AQAP had links with the Yemeni government.
“Everybody knows that we have been fighting the regime and that we consider it illegitimate regime and our theology and the oratory of our leaderships indicate this issue. As I have told you we are fighting th regime and many of us were either killed or captured. We and this regime are in a continual war since a decade,” said al-Qasu
He also said that al-Qaeda operatives are among the protesters at the protesting sites in different cities of Yemen. But he said that they are not armed.
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