Updated: Airstrike in Shabwa Kills 6 or 34 al Qaeda, One Awlaki or another, Maybe Wahishi
Update 2: Abdulelah Shayer, who conducted both interviews, confirmed on al Jazeera that Anwar Awlaki is alive.
Update; Nasser Arrabyee reports the five killed were all of the Awlaki tribe and associates of Fahd al Quso, convicted in Yemen as a conspirator in the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole. Al Quso escaped in 2004 and was indicted in NY federal court for 50 counts of terrorism. Al Quso was re-jailed and given an early release in 2007.
From the site, the tribal sheikh Lahmar bin Salfooh, said that the five men were comrades of Fahd Al Kusa and that all of them are from Al Awlaki tribe in Shabwah province.
Al Kusa, who was released after being convicted of participating in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, was not among the dead bodies, said Bin Salfooh.
“Fahd Al Kusa is still alive, maybe he was in other place at the time of strike,” he said
“I saw only five dead bodies, three of them from Nesab district including Mohammed Ahmed Omair, and one from Al Saeed district, and the fifth from Ausailan, and all of them are Awlakis,” said bin Salfooh an interview over phone from the site.
Orignal Post: Sources on the ground confirm six al Qaeda were killed in an airstrike in Sahbwa and one random guy driving a tractor. Better. Maybe there were more strikes later that account for the Yemeni government’s figure of 34 killed. AQAP’s head Nasir al Wahishi has been sheltering in Shabwa for some time according to the Yemen government. The Iranian is interesting if true. Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir referenced below is the same Mohammmed Saleh Awlaki who rallied the crowd in Abyan, and is (was) known to be an agent of the regime. He is a relative of Fahd al Quso, convicted in the USS Cole bombing. Of course, last we heard of Fahd al Quso was when the Yemen Post reported last year that he was living with his family in Shabwa and receiving money transfers. The The WaPo says the airstrike targeted Anwar Awlaki’s home, where Wahishi and al Shiri were meeting.
AFP: SANAA — Thirty-four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed Thursday in a dawn air raid by the Yemeni army on an area used by the militant group, a security source said.
“The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh,” a remote mountainous region some 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the Yemeni capital, the source said, asking not to be named.
The head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, Nasser al-Whaychi, was present at the meeting, the source said, adding that “members of the group including Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir were among those killed.”
The source was unable to say what had happened to Whaychi, but he indicated that Oumir was the person who had recently made a public appearance at a meeting in Abyane of which Al-Jazeera television showed a video.
“Saudis and Iranians at the Wadi Rafadh meeting were also among the dead,” said the source, without going into detail.
The operation came a week after a first army raid that killed 30 Al-Qaeda activists in the southeastern Abyane province and which led to the arrest of more than 30 others.
Reuters: Among those believed killed was Anwar al Awlaki, whom U.S. officials linked to the gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas on November 5.
“Anwar al Awlaki is suspected to be dead (in the air raid),” said the Yemeni official, who asked not to be identified.
The air attack targeted a meeting of militants planning an attack on Yemeni and foreign oil targets, the official said.
He added that the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Abu Basir Nasser al-Wahayshi, may also have been killed in the strikes but that there was no confirmation.
“We are still unsure if two of the top leaders have been killed or not. One of them is the … al Qaeda member Nasser al-Wahayshi,” he said, declining to say whether more strikes would take place on Thursday.
