Yemeni Opposition Parties Denounce “Massacre” and False Hunt for al Qaeda
Sahwa Net – Main Yemeni opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties, in Abyan governorate has denounced assaults launched by Yemeni forces on alleged al-Qaeda sites on Thursday in Abyan, describing the strikes as a “brutal massacre”.
In a statement, they said the attacks launched on al-Mahfad village of Abyan claimed the lives of dozens innocent people, including children and women.
The statement also said these attacks should not be ignored, they had to be investigated and the involved must be held accountable.
“The authorities claim that they are hunting al-Qaeda, but they are killing citizens and know al-Qaeda members’ sanctuaries and camps, those who protect and fund them and they could eliminate them without committing slaughters” added the statement.
From the Yemen Observer, Yemeni expert on al Qaeda, Abdulelah Shayer, who apparently is from Arhab, predicts increased al Qaeda recruitment as a result of the strike:
However, Abdul Elah Haidar Shaye’e, an expert in terrorism affair, downplayed the two operations of al-Majala and Arhab, saying it will only increase the new recruitments of al-Qaeda.
“For Arhab, it was only clashes between the tribesmen and security forces, no al-Qaeda men were there,” Shaye’e, an Arhabi citizen, told Yemen Observer.
When asked why the tribesmen clashed with the security men, he said the tribesmen got angry when anyone attacks them, whatever the reason was and whoever the attacker was.“For al-Majalah, it was against civilians, which means al-Qaeda will gain from that strike by recruiting a lot of angry people,” he said.
When asked if the al-Qaeda members were living in the al-Majalah with their families, he said, “The only al-Qaeda man was Mohammed Saleh al-Kazimi, who was killed with his whole family.”



