Hundreds of al Qaeda Flocking to Yemen from Pakistan
This has been going on for some time. There was a foreign jihaddist build-up before the outbreak of the current round of the Sa’ada War.
Just some random influx or centrally directed? – Centrally directed for sure
Setting up their own cells or joining Wahishi? – Own cells with links to AQC, maybe some lip service to Wahishi
Settling in Sa’ada or Marib or Sana’a? – Everywhere including Somalia
Main target? Certainly not Saleh, likely Houthis, Saudi Arabia and western targets
CBS: Hundreds of hardcore Arab fighters loyal to al Qaeda have fled the Afghanistan-Pakistan region this year, heading mainly to Yemen to bolster an Islamist insurgency targeting oil-rich Saudi Arabia, according to Arab, Pakistani and Western officials who spoke to CBS News…
“The trend is very, very clear,” one Western diplomat based in Islamabad told CBS News on condition of anonymity. “There is no question about Arab members of al Qaeda increasingly seeking ways to travel to Yemen.
“Some have been arrested along this route,” said the official, who refused to name the countries in which arrests have taken place, or the number of people arrested.
A senior Pakistani official who spoke to CBS News confirmed that Arab militants linked to al Qaeda were heading to Yemen in growing numbers. The Pakistani official claimed the militants had traveled to Yemen via Iran, using remote locations along the southern Iranian coast to discretely board fishing vessels.
However, the Western diplomat said it was not possible to establish a single route taken by the militants. “It is impossible to say if these people made their transit in Iran or just traveled out of Pakistan to another country first before reaching Yemen, or may have found ways to sail straight to Yemen” he said.
The revelation of militants transiting to Yemen, with the likely intention of trying to destabilize Saudi Arabia, follows last month’s attack on Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, the Saudi deputy interior minister, who has led his kingdom’s efforts against terrorists.
