15 Al-Qaeda Suspects Confess to Targeting Oil Facilities in Saudi Arabia and Yemen
The YSB?
SAN’A, Yemen: A Yemeni security official says that recently detained members of al-Qaida have confessed to plans to attack oil facilities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
The official says authorities “obtained during interrogation” confessions from 15 militants arrested after a shootout earlier this week in the town of Tarim in Hadramawt province.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
He says Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz was dispatched to Yemen after learning about the confessions. Riyadh did not comment on Nayef’s visit.
The following article says the YSB group was responsible for pretty much all the recent attacks attacks, including the three mortar attacks in Sana’a, the three suicide bombings and the attacks on the Belguin tourists. And makes the point that some predict, “The international community, mainly the US, will approve of government plans to prioritise security rather than democracy.” (furthering the ultimate Talibanization of Yemen)
SANA’A // The killing this week by Yemeni security forces of a key al Qa’eda mastermind will initially sow confusion among the group, but is likely to provoke a violent backlash, an analyst said.
“This operation is a big blow to al Qa’eda and will, of course, invite an angry response from al Qa’eda to retaliate. It is clear now the confrontation between the government and al Qa’eda is open,” said Saeed Thabet, a political analyst who follows Islamist movements.
Yemeni authorities announced on Aug 12 that Hamza al Quaiti, al Qa’eda in Yemen’s number two, was killed along with five other terror suspects in a shoot-out with police the previous day in Tarim, in south-eastern Hadramaut province.
Another two suspected militants were wounded and arrested by police. Two police officers were killed in the clash.
The ministry of interior has blamed Quaiti for masterminding several terror attacks in Yemen in recent months, including four car bomb attacks and an attack on Belgian tourists in Hadramaut on Jan 18 that killed two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers. The ministry has also accused Quaiti of being behind the US Embassy bombing in March. The attack killed a security guard and wounded 13 students at a nearby school.
Mr Thabet said the government decided to move against the Tarim cell after al Qa’eda claimed responsibility for a July 25 suicide car bombing in Hadramaut’s Sayoun city that killed a policeman and wounded 18 people.
“The Sayoun operation was the key that led security forces to the Tarim cell, as al Qa’eda, for the first time in Yemen, published the photo of and information about the suicide bomber on the internet. The security made use of that to trace the connections of the attacker and reach al Quaiti and his friends,” Mr Thabet said.
He said the killing of Quaiti in a raid on the cell’s hideout immediately after the bombing illustrated how the new generation of al Qa’eda was lacking co-ordination and discipline.
“This is a new crash for al Qa’eda, as the killing of one of its masterminds immediately after their attack in Sayoun shows there is something wrong; its operations are no longer strategically planned as they used to be. This new generation of al Qa’eda militants is still young and inexperienced.
“They are randomly attacking citizens, tourists and some foreign interests. This has nothing to do with what al Qa’eda used to claim that it is attacking military interests like the USS Cole. Now, al Qa’eda is only operating retaliating random attacks. This demonstrates weakness,” he said.
In an internet broadcast three weeks ago, Quaiti threatened “bigger” operations in Yemen if his detained associates were not released.
Quaiti was one of 23 convicts who escaped the intelligence prison in Feb 2006. Three of the fugitives, including Naser al Wahishi, head of al Qa’eda in Yemen, and Qasim al Raimi, remain at large. Five have been killed and 15 others recaptured.
“There is no doubt al Wahishi and al Raimi remain important to secure the tenacity of the al Qa’eda cells,” Mr Thabet said.
According to the interior ministry, security forces also discovered a cache of weapons at the Tarim cell’s hideout, including 50 bags of gunpowder and TNT bombs, as well as a fully equipped workshop to prepare explosive-laden cars.
It said police also found Arab passports, including two belonging to Saudis, as well as one for Ahmed Saeed al Mashjari, the Sayoun suicide bomber.
The ministry said the Tarim cell “planned to execute terror offensives and bombings in Yemen and abroad”.
The Yemeni government would also be keen to use the Tarim attack to show the United States it was serious about combating terrorism, Mr Thabet said.
“This deadly attack on al Qa’eda will bring back Yemen to the front line of countries countering terrorism in the region and serves to normalise Yemen’s tense relationship with the US,” he said.
The United States has been pressuring Yemen to extradite Jamal al Badwi, who was convicted in 2004 of plotting and helping to carry out the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden on Oct 12 2000. He received a death sentence in absentia, which was commuted to 15 years in prison. To Washington’s dismay, Badwi was released last October, but Yemen said he was never a free man.
Following the attacks on the US embassy and a foreigners’ housing complex in the capital in April, the US government ordered all non-emergency staff and their families out of Yemen.
The US state department report on terrorism in Yemen in 2007 was also very critical, accusing Yemen of continuing “to implement a surrender programme with lenient requirements for terrorists it could not apprehend, which often led to their relatively lax incarceration”.
“Yemen also released all returned Guantanamo detainees after short periods of assessment and rehabilitation, into a government monitoring program that lacked strict monitoring measures,” the report said.
Mr Thabet said there was concern the government might use its war on terror as an excuse to ignore opposition demands for political reforms.
The government is locked in a heated debate with the opposition over an election reform bill and other issues, including the release of protest leaders in the south.
“The government will make use of such a situation to implement its political agenda away from the opposition and its demands for political and economic reforms,” Mr Thabet said.
“The international community, mainly the US, will approve of government plans to prioritise security rather than democracy. And in this way, terrorists will sabotage the opposition political reform project.”
