Al-Qaeda Operative Al-Quayti Killed
Escaped al Qaeda operative Hamza al Quayti was killed in a shootout along with four other al-Qaeda operatives as well as two policemen. President Saleh said the group was planning attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. A published report indicated elements within Yemeni security forces directed al Qauyti in March to launch a failed mortar attack on the US embassy and cleared the roads for his escape after the attack. The coordinates were off deliberately, the report says. The official regime meme is the current raid is proof Yemen is cooperating in the WOT, and deserves “greater international support and understanding” The group is supposedly responsible for all three car bombings (election, tourists, police station).
Daily Times: Yemen’s leading Al Qaeda fugitive killed in shootout
SANAA: Yemen said on Tuesday that a prominent fugitive member of the local branch of Al Qaeda was killed in a shootout when police stormed a house in the eastern province of Hadramaut.
Hamza al-Quayti, one of 23 Al Qaeda militants who broke out of jail in February 2006, was killed along with four other fighters in Monday’s clash in the town of Tarim, the defence ministry website September 26 said. Two policemen were killed and three others wounded, while two militants were wounded and captured, it added. The ministry said the militants who were hiding in a house stormed by security forces had formed a cell which “planned to execute terror attacks and bombings in Yemen and abroad”. It said police found explosives and documents including Arab passports, including two belonging to Saudis. It claimed the cell was behind attacks including a suicide car bombing that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemeni guides at a historic site in Marib, east of Sanaa, in July 2007 (07/02.07).
The group was also behind a (September, pre-election) foiled attack on oil installations in Marib in 2006, and a suicide car bombing last month in the Hadramaut town of Sayun, in which one policeman was killed and 17 people wounded, it added. Three of the 23 Al Qaeda escapees remain at large, five have been killed and 15 others recaptured (and re-released on loose house arrest).
So many operatives have been accused of the 2006 thwarted pre-election attacks (including both Elbaneh and al-Badawi who are both free), but if it was al-Quayti, it makes a lot of sense when factored in with the mortar attacks, which the group claimed “credit” for and all of which missed (the March 18 mortar attack that missed the US embassy, an April 06 mortar attack on a western residential compound that caused no casualties and little damage, and an April 30 mortar attack on the Italian Embassy in Sana’a that missed and hit a neighboring Customs authority building).
On 4/22/08 three late night explosions rocked Sayoun, Hadramout at the main police center, near a wall and no one was wounded. In July, the same police station was targeted by a suicide bomber, the work of al-Quayti bargaining for (overdue?) releases of al-Qaeda members. The attack was claimed by Yemen Islamic Jihad.
Al-Qaeda operative al-Qauyti and the others were killed in a shoot-out with security similar to the deaths of Fawaz al-Raibi and the Egyptian Diwadier, both of whom are purported to have had close relations with top Yemeni officials.
Update: just dropping this here, a tad old but interesting. How did prisoners from al-Mansoura prison get to publish their letter at al-ekhlaas.net?
In an effort to pressurize the authorities and set their fellows free, Al-Qaeda wing in Yemen threatened to launch more attacks on foreign facilities and interests, especially oil industry which has been recently a target for their terrorist operations.
Published on al-ekhlaas.net – a website used for telecasting news and letters of Al-Qaeda organizations, the arrested Al-Qaeda suspects in Aden’s Al-Mansoura Central Prison sent a letter to their fellow Al-Qaeda leaders of Yemen, detailing their situation and how they are treated by the Political Security affiliates.
The letter petitioned Al-Qaeda leaders Nasser Al-Wuhishi and Hamza Al-Qa’aiti to work for their release, hinting that they are subjected to constant torture by security officers.
“To the courageous lion Abu Basir Nasser Al-Wuhishi, your sons at Aden’s Central Prison are subject to severe torture,” said the letter.
It added that security guards prevented visits of their relatives or any food they bring with them, demanding Al-Qu’aiti and Al-Wuhishi to take revenge.
Early this month, Al-Qu’aiti, in a video recording, threatened to wage more attacks on the government, unless the Political Security set his fellow Al-Qaeda members free.
Challenging security leaders, he further stressed that he will not forget them and promised to have them released very soon.
Following Sayun’s terrorist attack, authorities launched an arrest campaign that targeted all Al-Qaeda suspects in Sana’a, Aden, Hadramout and Mareb.
Yemen has been a scene for several Al-Qaeda attacks, the last of which was waged on the Central Security Compound in Hadramout’s Sayun city. The attack left 18 victims dead and injured.
A recently established radical Islamic group known as Islamic Jihad Organization, a new wing of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, stressing that more operations are underway in retaliation for killing several Al-Qaeda elements by security and army soldiers.
Armed men, allegedly from Al-Qaeda, attacked on January 18 a convoy of Belgian tourists in Hadramout’s Al-Hajreen area, killing two Belgian tourists and wounding others.
A similar attack took place last year when seven Spanish tourists were killed outside the gate of Belquis Shrine in Mareb. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for both operations.
