By: Mohammed al-Kibsi
Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen AQAP praised the attack against US embassy in Libya as well as attacks against US embassies in Egypt and Yemen and urged Muslims worldwide to attack Americans interests.
The AQAP's comment did come in the form of claim of responsibility for the Benghazi attack. It was in the form of a justification for the attack.
According to SITE, an intelligence group in the US which, inter alia, monitors the web statements of Al Qaeda, the AQAP said, "The killing of Sheikh Abu Yahya only increased the enthusiasm and determination of the sons of (Libyan independence hero) Omar al-Mukhtar to take revenge upon those who attack our Prophet. The uprising of our people in Libya, Egypt and Yemen against America and its embassies is a sign to notify the United States that its war is not directed against groups and organizations... but against the Islamic nation that has rebelled against injustice."
AQAP called for more violent demonstrations against US embassies in the Middle East and Africa, and urged Muslims in the West to attack American interests in their countries of residence.
Analysts wondered that al Qaeda's first comment on the commando-style attack on the United states consulate in Benghazi in Libya has not come from its command and control in North Waziristan in Pakistan headed by its Amir Ayman al-Zawahiri, but from its Yemen branch called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Of course, Zawahiri had issued a video message on September 10, 2012, one day before the Benghazi attack, confirming the death of his No.2 Abu Yahya al-Libi, a Libyan cleric, in a US drone strike in the Waziristan area on June 4,2012. The message called President Barack Obama a liar, who was trying to mislead the Muslims.
The presumption among many analysts was that the Benghazi attack was to avenge the death of al-Libi and that it had been planned before the Islamic world came to know of the film Innocence of Islam which has sparked off violent anti-US protests in many countries.
Analysts expected that the first comment of al-Qaeda on the Benghazi attack would come from Zawahiri or from Al Qaeda headquarters in North Waziristan. It has not. It has come from Yemen, indicating a possible co-ordination of the anti-US protests by AQAP.
"May the expulsion of embassies and consulates lead to the liberation of Arab lands from the American hegemony and the arrogance," said the statement.
Meanwhile, more than 400 insurgents from al-Qaeda in al-Mahfad district in south Yemen, the current stronghold in a mountainous area between Abyan and Shabwah provinces, are preparing to control the town of Baihan, local official said on Sunday.
The director of Al Mahfad district, Yaslem Al Anboori, said in a press interview that al-Qaeda in al-Mahfaf had sent a number of suicide bombers to Aden and Sana’a to target Yemeni and western officials and installations.
A total of 200 armored vehicles of the American marines arrived to the Yemeni capital Sanaa according to the weekly independent newspaper Al Ola.
And 250 soldiers of the marines had arrived on Friday and Saturday.
The American government said it had sent forces to protect its embassy in Sanaa.
Earlier, the Yemeni Parliament called the American forces to leave the country immediately, after about 150 from the American Marines forces arrived to Sanaa after angry demonstrators stormed and destroyed the US embassy in protest over American-Israeli film deemed abusive to Islam and its prophet Mohamed.
"We do not accept any foreign forces in Yemen, be it small or big forces, and for any reason," said a statement by the Parliament on Saturday. The Parliament asked the government to protect all foreign missions in Yemen. The statement condemned the anti-Islam film ( the Innocence of Muslims) and called for putting the film makers on trial.
On September 15,2012, the Tehrik-e-Taliban [ Images ] Pakistan as the Pakistani Taliban is known called upon Muslim youth in Pakistan and other countries to protest against the movie. While one violent incident attributed to the Afghan Taliban has been reported from Southern Afghanistan, reportedly resulting in the death of two US Marines, there have so far been no violent incidents in Pakistan, but anti-US demonstrations have been held in different cities of Pakistan.
The wave of protests till now has been against the film itself and the US for allowing it to be produced and clips to be disseminated from the US, but clerics in different countries, while calling for the protests to be peaceful, have been demanding a UN ban on any insult to sacred symbols of Islam and other religions.
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