In response to the tragic deaths of soldiers this week, the new elected
president vows to crush all terrorists, says Nasser Arrabyee
8 - 14 March 2012
Issue No. 1088
_____
Al-Qaeda has intensified its terrorist attacks as Yemen started to gradually
restore its stability. In more than three provinces in the south and east of
the country, Al-Qaeda has been implementing suicide bombings against
military and security forces. Hundreds of soldiers were killed, injured and
detained by Al-Qaeda even as the new elected president vowed to crush
terrorism after he took power on 25 February.
Last Sunday, about 200 soldiers were killed and 150 others injured when
Al-Qaeda operatives attacked camps and positions in Dawfas area, near
Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan, in the bloodiest operation the army has ever
seen before. "Al-Qaeda is very afraid that Yemen will get back stability.
This is why it does all these things," said Said Obaid, an expert on
Al-Qaeda affairs.
Al-Qaeda is forcing detained soldiers to train its fighters on modern tanks
and artillery and other heavy weapons that it looted after attacking troops
positions on Sunday in south Yemen, local sources told Al-Ahram Weekly.
About 60 soldiers were detained and taken to the Taliban-style
Al-Qaeda-declared Islamic emirate of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan
on Sunday morning.
About 20 from Al-Qaeda fighters were killed and dozens were injured,
according to sources in Jaar. "The detained soldiers from Dawfas battles
were seen on Monday in Jaar training Al-Qaeda fighters on the looted tanks
and artilleries," said local sources. Although American and Yemeni fighter
jets tried to bomb and destroy the looted heavy weapons on Sunday, they
failed to destroy everything, said the sources.
The newly elected president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi vowed to crush all
hideouts of the terrorists in Abyan and other places. "The confrontation
would continue with all force until the last terrorist is killed," said
President Hadi in a meeting he held Monday with American, British, and Saudi
officials and diplomats.
The country's military supreme committee held also a meeting with the 10
ambassadors who helped Yemenis to get out of their political crisis. They
discussed the serious confrontations with Al-Qaeda during the past year. The
ambassadors include the five permanent members of the Security Council, and
the five ambassadors of the Gulf countries, except Qatar, in addition to the
chief of the European Union mission.
The families of the dead and injured soldiers demanded in a statement sent
to media on Monday that new elected President Hadi should strike with an
iron fist on those who were responsible for the massacre of Dawfas. The
families demanded that the minister of defence and minister of interior
should resign and an investigation committee should be formed.
Meanwhile, six Al-Qaeda suspects with a car bomb were arrested early Tuesday
morning in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to security authorities.
Earlier the week, another car bomb was discovered and confiscated. The
authorities were looking for three car bombs that were made in Arhab area,
about 30km north of the capital, where Al-Qaeda has traditionally been
active. Arhab is the village of the extremist cleric Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani,
who is accused by US and UN of being a global terrorist.
In Al-Mukalla in the far east of Yemen, Al-Qaeda threatened in posters found
in the mosques on Tuesday that it would assassinate every single military
and security person if they do not declare their repentance. In the posters
Al-Qaeda wrote a telephone number for those who want to declare their
repentance to save their lives. The number is called "repentance number".
Last Wednesday Al-Qaeda threatened to attack places outside the battle field
if the government troops did not withdraw from Zinjubar within 10 days. "We,
Ansar Sharia in the state of Abyan, would give the government an ultimatum
of 1o days for withdrawing all the troops from Zinjubar, and compensate the
displaced persons," said Abu Hamza Jalal Beledi, Emir Ansar Sharia in the
state of Abyan, in a statement sent through SMS by an assistant of his who
called himself Abu Al-Walid.
"If the troops are not withdrawn, we would attack outside the battle field,
and we might have to implement the plan of flooding the river," said the top
leader of Al-Qaeda in Zinjubar in the SMS which was sent to the Weekly
correspondent.
Al-Qaeda's threat came only two days after the command of the troop units
around Zinjubar gave an ultimatum of one week to Al-Qaeda operatives to
leave the city of Zinjubar; otherwise the troops will storm the city.
The threats by Al-Qaeda to strike outside the battlefield came also one day
after security authorities said they had intelligence that three car bombs
are somewhere ready to implement suicide attacks against Yemeni government
and Western interests in Yemen. The security authorities are searching for
the three car bombs everywhere, the security sources said.
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Received on Wed Mar 14 2012 - 19:16:18 EDT
