Yemen security arrests 5 al-Qaeda suspects, al-Qaeda kills 2 soldiers

By : Mohammed al-Kibsi

Few hours after the Yemeni security authorities arrested two al-Qaeda operatives in a check point in Lahj province, al-Qaeda insurgents attacked the checkpoint and killed two soldiers and wounded three others.

Suspected al-Qaeda militants ambushed a Yemeni army post in the southern province of Lahj before dawn Wednesday, killing two soldiers and wounding three, a security source said.

The attack occurred early Wednesday in the area of Hableen when four gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint in eastern Lahj province, said the security source.

The death toll is expected to rise because some of those injured were in critical condition.

On Tuesday security forces at al-Habilain check point arrested two al-Qaeda terrorists. The arrested are called Ammar al-Maysari and Ali al-Jahafi.

After arresting the two suspects the security forces stormed their home in Rimi neighborhood in Aden where the forces found huge number of explosives, weapons and valuable documents about al-Qaeda plans for attacking vital government premises and officials in Aden.

On Tuesday, security forces stormed a house in Aden's Mansoura neighborhood to arrest some wanted terrorists, but the armed group started shooting at the security troops, sparking a short gun battle that left four al-Qaeda suspects killed at the scene.

The security authorities also announced on Tuesday of arresting three key al-Qaeda operatives in Aden.

Lahj is located 337 km southwest of the capital city Sanaa, and 30 km east of Aden, Yemen’s international seaport.

While media affirms that hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters left to Syria Yemen says hijacked officers were studying in Syria

By Mohammed al-Kibsi

Hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters left Yemen to Syria to join the fight against Bashar al-Asad’s forces, said different media sources.  

Yemen Observer had published a report attributed to Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhly as saying that hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters were transported from Abyan province in south Yemen to Syria.

Al-Fadli announced that there was a deal for evacuating al-Qaeda fighters from Yemen and sending them to Syria to join the fight against the Syrian regime.

He said that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring this deal and that the fighters were sent to Syria through Turkey.

“The sudden withdrawal of al-Qaeda militants from the two cities of  Zinjubar and Ja’ar in Abyan province is connected to a conclusive deal recently made to  have groups of armed men relocated to Syria to partake in the war against the Syrian regime, al-Fadhli told the Adenalghd local news site.

Later in the month the British based Guardian newspaper affirmed that hundreds of international fighters have flocked to Syria to join the war against Bashar al-Assad’ government.

Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhli is a veteran Arab Afghan Jihadist who is currently one of the key leaders of the southern movement.

Some are fresh-faced idealists driven by hatred for Assad, while some are jihadi veterans from Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.

According to the Guardian, to reach the country, foreign fighters have crossed borders with forged passports and dodge secret services.

The fighters have been dispersed among different jihadi organizations, including Ahrar al-Sham ("the Free Men of Syria") and Jabhat al-Nusra ("the Front for the Aid of the People of the Levant").

These fighters are also secretive, especially when dealing with the Free Syria Army.

Meanwhile the German De Vilt newspaper revealed that a report issued by the German intelegence uncovered that only 5 percent of the Syrian Free army are of Syrian national and that the rest are jihadists brought from other Arab and Islamic countries, including Yemen.

The report said that the number of the Arab Jihadists in Syria amounts to 15000. According to the report most of these jihadists are affiliated to al-Qaeda and the rest are from other extremist Islamic groups that have been using children as human shields.

On the same context the Yemeni daily newspaper al-Ola said that the Yemen government rejected a Qatari deal for purchasing weapons from North Korea and sending have of the weapons deal to the Syrian Free Army.

The paper said that the deal was rejected by President Hadi during his visit to Qatar.

Yemen's defense ministry has denied that five military officers reportedly being held by rebels in Syria were sent to fight alongside Syrian government forces.

An official told BBC Arabic that the soldiers had been studying at a military academy in Aleppo and were detained as they tried to travel home.

The al-Nusra Front, an Islamist rebel group in Syria, posted a video on Sunday saying it had captured them.

The video showed five men asking Yemen to stop supporting Bashar al-Assad.

The Yemeni defense ministry said the five soldiers had travelled to Syria two years ago to study at the Assad Military Academy in Aleppo as part of a military co-operation agreement between the two countries.

“They were sent to study in Syria a year before the uprising started in Syria”, said the military source and friends of the captured Yemeni officers.

They were detained on 4 September as they travelled from Aleppo to Damascus to get their flight home, it added.

The ministry's account supports what the Yemeni human rights group, Hood, told the Reuters news agency over the weekend.

The unverified four-minute video, which was posted on jihadist forums, shows the identity cards of five men, one of whom appears to be a lieutenant-colonel, as well as pictures of them in military uniform.

The men are pictured sitting below a black flag emblazoned with "al-Nusra Front" in Arabic.

The video includes an interview with one of the men, who says the group had been sent to Damascus to help quell the uprising.

The man, who identifies himself as Mohammed Abdo Hezam al-Meleiky, says: "I ask the Yemeni government to cut all logistical and military ties because Bashar al-Assad's regime is a regime that is killing its people and that is what we saw with our own eyes when we came here."

A friend of al-Meleiky said all he knows about Mohammed al-Meleiky was that he was studying for a master degree in Syria and that they were expecting him to come back home early September.

“I believe that what al-Meleiky said on the video was under threat by his abductors,” said his friends that preferred to be anonymous.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen assassinates pro-government tribal militia leader

Source: Yemen Observer www.yobserver.com

A pro-government militia man died an hour ago after being targeted along with other members by al-Qaeda suicide bomber earlier today in the southern province of Abyan.

The suicide bomber targeted a group of pro-government militia in the morning but mist the militia leader in the district of Lawdar, Abyan province in south Yemen, a local source said.

Saleh al-Agdal, a local from Lawdar district, said that al-Masoodi died in a hospital in Aden city, south Yemen. He said another member is unlikely to survive whlile the third one is stable.

The suicide bomber was waiting for the pro-government leader, Muhammed Aidarous, but he was already in office when the bomber resorted to targeting a car carrying members of the militia, said al-Agdal.

Al-Agdal said three of the targeted people were taken to Aden as they were seriously injured. The other four, the source said, are now in the local hospital in Lawdar. “So far,” al-Agdal said, “no one has died and Aidarous is fine.”

Aidarous has escaped three assassination attempts before. The pro-government militias, known as the Popular Committees, have joined the government army in its fight against al-Qaeda militants in the restive province in Abyan.

The militants attacked earlier in the month the leader of the militia in Ja’ar district but he escaped the assassination and suffered severe injury.

   

Yemen al-Qaeda: second man alive, US asks Yemen delay DNA test

By Mohammed al-Kibsi & Shoaib al-Musawa

Saeed al-Shihri, the Yemen al-Qaeda’s second-in-command government announced killed recently, is still alive, sources close to the group said.

Yemen defense ministry announced on September 10 it killed Saeed al-Shihri, deputy leader of Yemen based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in a “qualitative operation” believed to have been conducted by a U.S. drone attack.

Local sources from Abyan said al-Shihri is still alive. “The man is present,” said an Abyan local source who is familiar with the groups’ activities. “I contacted several people [close to al-Shihri] and confirmed he wasn’t basically at the attack scene.”

Another Abyan source, known to be an al-Qaeda affiliate, said al-Shihri is still alive. “I am one hundred percent sure he [al-Shihri] is alive. So close sources from al-Shihri have also affirmed he is still alive,” said the al-Qaeda affiliate source. Both two sources spoke on anonymity conditions citing personal concerns.

The al-Qaeda affiliate source, reached by mobile from al-Mahfad area which is now under al-Qaeda control, said “many” of al-Qaeda leaders announced dead by government are still alive, too. “Sometimes, they [al-Qaeda leadership] avoid affirming or denying that their members are dead for fear of [government] pursuit,” he said.

Yemeni government has not commented since media has reported conflicting accounts on al-Shihri being alive.

London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, quoting a “senior government official”, reported on September 14 that symbols of corpses were taken from a Hadramout hospital for a DNA test which, according to the paper, proved al-Shihri was not among those killed by the drone attack. Saudi interior minister told the paper on September 16 that he is not sure yet that al-Shihri was among those killed.

However, Yemeni officials from the criminal investigation said that no DNA test has been taken yet to any of the corpses.

 “We received four corpses, one of which is believed to be al-Shihri’s,” said a security officer at the criminal investigation department based on Sana'a. “Department of Criminal Evidence Investigation [in Sana’a] fetched them to Sana’a the second day of the attack for the DNA test but the American asked [Yemeni government] not to conduct any test,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous for not being authorized to speak to the press.

The officer said an American German team is arriving Yemen to conduct a DNA test of what believed to be the corpse of al-Qaeda second man along with three affiliate members killed by a U.S. drone attack in east province of Hadramout. The officer said he doesn’t know the specific day the team would arrive.

 The officer said he had been to the criminal evidence department, where the corpse are, and saw four corpses but that no DNA test has been conducted yet either in Sana’a nor in Hadramout. “All were totally burned that no one can identify them [corpses].

Yemen has announced killing of Shihri three times before but the group has denied the news.

Al-Shihri is a Saudi national who was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and was sent to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation.

Situations calm down in north of Yemen after 16 fighters killed

By Mohammed al-Kibsi

After fierce clashes between Houthi rebels and militants of Islah party in Rayda town, Houthis rebels withdraw their militants from Rayda and handed over 36 prisoners of war that they captured during the past two days.

Over 16 fighters were killed in Rayda town in the north of Yemen in ongoing clashes between Shiite tribesmen known as al-Houthis  and ultra-conservative Sunnis affiliated to Islah Islamist party, security officials  and local sources said on Monday.

Tensions have long existed between Salafi Islamists, who are Sunni Muslims, and al-Houthi rebels, who are Shiite Muslims.

Local sources said that tribal midiators from Ayal Suraih tribe lead by Sheikh Sinan al-Ghouli succeeded in reaching to a truce between the two rivals and that both sides agreed to withdraw their militants from Rayda immediately.



Nearly 200 people died in fighting late last year between the two sides in northern Sa’ada province.



The latest clashes in Amran province revealed a new alliance between Hawthis and loyalists of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whom the group fought in a costly six-year war until a cease-fire was reached in early 2010.



Over 200 Yemeni Jews live in Rayda town; however no casualties were reported among the minority Jewish community during the latest clashes.

The clashes happened after some affiliates of Islah party intrupted a demonstration organized by Houthis who were protesting the Innocence of Muslims movie that defamed Islam and Prophet Mohammed.

The Houthis also protested the appointment of the new governor of Amran, Mohammed Damaj and the new security chief of Amran, alleging that Damaj was not from Amran province and that the new chief police was the cause of war in Sa’da and war in Bani Hushish.

Residents trapped in street fighting in the city of Rayda in Amran say the Salafis from the opposition Islah Party were fighting Houthis, the two sides firing at each other with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

Houthis accused the commander of the 110 brigade General al-Gushaibi of supporting Salafis with armor vehicles and rockets.



The clashes happened a week after Yemen's government installed new governors from the Islah Party in Amran, about 45 miles north west of the capital Sana’a, and two other provinces around Sa’ada where Houthis are concentrated.

Aid agencies call 'Friends of Yemen' to rescue Yemenis from hunger

The  hunger  crisis  in  Yemen,  which  affects almost one out of every two Yemeni  citizens,  and  is  putting  nearly one million children at risk of severe  malnutrition,  must  be  addressed  immediately  to put the fragile country  on the path to a better future, eight international and Yemeni aid agencies  said  today.

 The call for more targeted emergency funding came as foreign ministers from the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and other countries are set to meet with the Yemeni government at the Friends of Yemen donor conference in New York.

The  aid agencies – Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Islamic Relief, CARE International, Merlin,  International  Medical  Corps,  Yemen Relief and Development Forum (YRDF)  and  the Humanitarian Forum – said that despite generous pledges of $6.4bn  made at a conference in Riyadh, the humanitarian response was still dangerously under-funded with the majority of pledged funds being allocated to  infrastructure  and macro-economic stability. This year’s UN appeal for $585  million  for  Yemen’s emergency needs is still less than half-funded.

This  shortfall  could be closed with a fraction – just over 4 percent – of the  funds  promised  in  Riyadh.   There  is no reason for an under-funded humanitarian response, say the agencies.

Recent  surveys have uncovered high malnutrition rates in Lahj in the south and Hajjah in the north, and agencies are now responding to needs in Abyan, which  until  recently  was  a  no-go  area wracked by fighting between the Yemeni government  and insurgents.

The  aid  agencies said that although longer-term  funding  was  essential,  it  would  not  help  Yemen  achieve development  and  stability unless matched with immediate funding to tackle the worsening humanitarian crisis. Colette Fearon, Country Director of Oxfam in Yemen, said:

“With  each passing day, the crisis gets tougher. Children’s futures are at risk  with  some  of  the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. Women  tell  Oxfam  that  their  lives  have  got  worse  since last year's political  upheaval. They can’t afford food or find work. Parents are pulling  children  out of school to beg, marrying their daughters early and selling  what  little they have just to get food today. They know this will make  life  harder  in  the  future, but have little choice.  People cannot survive  on  promises,  however  generous.  It would take a fraction of the money already promised to fully fund the UN appeal.”

The  aid agencies urged donors not to repeat the mistakes of the past where funds were pledged to Yemen, but did not materialize. In 2006, five billion dollars  was  promised to Yemen, but in early 2010 less than 10 percent had been   disbursed.  They  called  on  the  Friends  of  Yemen  to  ensure  a comprehensive  strategy  and accountable and transparent plan detailing how the  money  would be spent and by when, with clear indicators that national and  international  civil  society could monitor. They said this would help ensure  that  humanitarian  funding  was  quickly followed by investment to tackle the root causes of Yemen’s hunger crisis.

Mohammed Qazilbash, Mercy Corps Yemen Country Director said “The humanitarian crisis is staggering and Yemen needs immediate assistance to help the millions of Yemenis who are hungry right now.  As world leaders gather  to  discuss  Yemen’s future, we urge them not only to meet pressing needs on the ground, but to ensure that there is a plan in place to address the  root causes of the crisis. Unemployment and high food prices mean that people  cannot  afford  food  today.  By  investing  in the private sector, supporting  market development, job training and youth employment programs, donors can give Yemenis a better future and break the cycle of hunger.”

The UN is expected to request another £92 million to address needs in Abyan in  the  coming  months.  The agencies said this could be covered with just over one percent of the 6.4bn pledged.

“Malnutrition  rates  in Hodeidah have exceeded the emergency threshold by 100  percent,  so  Islamic  Relief  is  launching  a  health, nutrition and livelihood  program  there, it’s aim is to save life” said Islamic Relief Country  Director Hashem Awnallah, adding that the agency is also targeting Abyan  and  Lahj, but “more resources are needed to keep current operations

in place and reach out further.” The call of the  international  aid  agencies is echoed by Yemeni civil society.  In  a  recent  civil society conference in Riyadh, over 100 civil society  representatives  from  across  Yemen  agreed that the humanitarian crisis  should  be  a key priority for funding. The Yemeni diasporas is also campaigning  for recognition of the hunger crisis through its Hungry4Change campaign.