Updated: AQAP claims Hussain al-Tais and Mashhour al-Ahdal, al Tais a known affiliate of General Ali Mohsen
Update: Sahwa Net- Qawkban tribes of al-Mahweet province said it would retaliate al-Qaeda in case its fellow member Ali al-Hostam, the deputy head of intelligence in Saada is harmed by al-Qaeda, appealing President Ali Abdullah Saleh to save his life. (text below) Also, the German ambassador met yesterday with President Saleh. The state media reported the meeting was to praise Yemeni unity. Also see my earlier article on an interview with Hassan Zaid about the training camp in Abu Jubara dtd 3/29/10.
Original: The Chinese do very well reporting on Yemen, oddly enough. Al Ahdel, is this a relative of Mohammed Hamdi al Ahdel, the financier of the USS Cole bombing? Or his lesser cousins, Mohammed bin Mohammed al Ahdel and Mohammed Ahmed al Ahdel who, along with Cole bombers Fahd al Quso and Jamal al Badawi, escaped Aden jail in 2003? I think AQAP hung themselves with this one just by claiming Hussain al Tais, a long time known affiliate of General al Ahmar. Its funny the only actual al Qaeda in jail in Yemen was captured by the Houthis, except for the issue of the remaining German hostages.
People’s Daily: The Yemen-based al-Qaida wing set 48 hours for Sanaa government to swap two al-Qaida detainees for a senior intelligence official it captured late last month in the northern troubled province of Saada.
In a statement posted on jihadist forums late Monday, the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said “one of our Mujahedeen brigades have captured deputy director of the Yemeni Political Security Service (intelligence), Colonel Ali Mohammed Salah al-Husam, on August 26.”
It said al-Husam was running a network of espionage in Saada for 20 years and has snatched many of al-Qaida-related ideology students and held them incommunicado at intelligence prisons.
“If the apostate government cares for its secret agents, there will be no way to know the fate of this agent unless it releases the two brothers, Hussain al-Tais and Mashhour al-Ahdal, within 48 hours of issuing this statement,” the statement said.
“Al-Tais and al-Ahdal were arrested by northern Shiite rebels in a checkpoint in al-Jouf province, northeast of the capital Sanaa, and were then handed over to the intelligence director of Saada, Yahya al-Marani according to the confession of his depuy al-Husam,” it added.
Northern Saada province is considered to be a stronghold of Houthi-led Shiite rebels who sealed a fragile ceasefire with the Yemeni government on February 11 to end a six-year long sporadic battles.
According to local counter-terrorism observers, al-Qaida’s statement raised concerns over its ability to freely move in a conflicted area (Saada) which considered to be the key stronghold of historical anti-Qaida Shiite sect.
Tribes statement both threatening and imploring al Qaeda not to harm al Hosam via Mareb press:
Tribes confirmed that the two planets and long-Colonel Ali Mohammed Hussam – Deputy Director of Political Security in Saada province, who announced recently she was kidnapped by Al Qaeda, is one of her sons and associates, and that infallible blood, threatening to take revenge for the right hated.
وحملت تلك القبائل, في بيان لها تلقى “مأرب برس” نسخة منه, كل آل التيس وآل عبادة, وكل منتسبي آل أبوجباره كامل المسؤولية في الحفاظ على حياة الحسام, مبينة أن أي مساس بحياته سيجعل الثأر في المقام الأول على آل التيس وآل عبادة من قبائل وائله وادي آل أبو جبارة. And held that the tribes, in a statement it had received “Marib Press,” a copy of it, every one of the goat and all worship, all employees of Al Obojabbarh full responsibility in maintaining the life of Hussam, indicating that any prejudice to his life will take revenge in the first place on each goat and all worship of the tribes and accountability and Al Wadi Abu Jabara.
وشددت القبائل من أن ثأرها في حال المساس بحياة المختطف الأسير, قد يمتد إلى كل أفخاذ وعشائر قبيلة وائله, المنتمية إليها عناصر القاعدة التي اختطفت الحسام. She stressed that the tribes of revenge in the event of prejudice to the lives of the kidnapped soldier, may extend to the thighs and the families of each tribe and the gods, belonging to al-Qaeda hijacked Hussam.
وناشدت الخاطفين أن يكون عندهم ذرة عقل وأن يفكروا ألف مرة قبل أن يقدموا على أي تصرف أرعن يمس حياة المختطف, مشيرة إلى أن أياديها ممدودة لمساعدة الخاطفين في مطالبهم بالضغط على الحكومة في رفع أي مظلمة على المدعى بظلمهم: التيس والأهدل. And appealed to the kidnappers to have a mind of corn and think a thousand times before any action brought light-hearted touches the lives of the kidnapped, pointing out that the hands are stretched out to assist the hijackers in pressing their demands on the government to raise any grievance on the alleged iniquities: the goat and the VMA.
