Armies of Liberation

The seven AQAP killed in Azzam, Shabwa included Egyptian Ibrahim al Banna who was among 28 arrested in Hadramout in 2008. The group was put on trial in 2010 for forming an armed gang; seven of the 28 were tried in absentia and its unclear whether al Banna still was in custody or not. An article written at the time of the trial ties him to Iraqi al Qaeda. Also killed in the strike were Anwar al Awlaki’s son and cousin, the ABC article notes. A June drone strike in the same area killed Abu al Harithy Jr. of the Zarchawi cell that admitted fighting in Iraq and was tried in 2006; the court accepted their defense argument that jihad is a duty in occupied Muslim lands. Update: Tribal leaders said that Farhan al Quso also was killed in the attack. He is the brother of Fahd Mohammed al-Quso, a particularly elusive Al Qaeda fugitive who helped plan the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole attack.

WaPo: Yemeni officials familiar with the U.S. military drive against al-Qaida in Yemen said a shift of strategy by the Americans was finally yielding results, with human assets on the ground directly providing actionable intelligence to U.S. commanders rather than relying entirely on Yemen’s security agencies the Americans had long considered inefficient or even suspected of leaking word on planned operations. They said there were as many as 3,000 informers on the U.S. payroll around the country — some without even knowing it.

The terrorists targeted a pipeline in Shabwa carrying LNG from Marib to Balhaf in retaliation.

ABC The head of the media department of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been killed in a trio of US air strikes on militant outposts in Yemen, and gunmen retaliated by blowing up a gas export pipeline.

The death of Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian described by Yemeni officials as high on their wanted list, is a fresh blow to the Islamist group regarded by Washington as the most serious threat to the United States, following the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki last month…The ministry confirmed al-Banna was among seven suspected Al Qaeda militants killed, adding that he was wanted “internationally” for “planning attacks both inside and outside Yemen.”

Al-Banna was “in charge of the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” and was one of the group’s “most dangerous operatives,” it added….

Residents and officials said the 322-kilometre pipeline, which links gas fields in Maarib, east of Sanaa, to a $US4.5 billion Total-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, was blown up soon after the raids.

Sources at Total told Reuters the pipeline was blown up in two places, stopping the gas supplies that feed the Belhaf LNG plant. Witnesses said the flames were visible from several kilometres away.

Early Saturday, a local security official told Xinhua that a pipeline carrying gas from Marib to liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Balhaf port was blown up in Shabwa province.”The targeted gas pipeline located in Rodhoum area, a few miles away from the location of the French giant TOTAL-led Yemeni LNG Company in Balhaf port in southeast province of Shabwa,” the official told Xinhua by phone.
“The bombing took place on Saturday at about 1:30 a.m. local time, just a few hours after Yemeni warplanes hit hideouts of al- Qaida militants in neighboring towns of Azzan and Rawda,” he said on condition of anonymity. The official blamed al-Qaida for the attack.

An engineer of TOTAL-led Yemeni LNG company confirmed to Xinhua the bombing of the company’s gas pipeline. “Huge fire at the hit pipeline can be seen from miles away and the company already suspended gas production,” he said.

The Yemen Post later corrected (without explicitly noting it) the following article to read: One of the airstrikes in Arhab district killed a large number of armed tribesmen fighting the government as well as republican guards. The total number of death varied, with least estimates saying that at least 35 were killed in the air raids.

Another possible discrepancy in fatalities, by the power of ten, here.

Saada War redux- Iraqi pilots bomb Yemeni civilians. The impact of Saddam’s military leadership in Yemen on both the Saada War and the Iraqi insurgency was substantial.

Sahwa Net- Yemen Air Forces have recruited Iraqi pilots and used them in bombarding some Yemeni villages in Arhab after Yemeni pilots refused orders to attack the Yemeni villages, a military source revealed.

The source affirmed that the Iraqi pilots committed brutal crimes against people of Arhab, outskirt of Sana’a governorate, pointing out that they carried out many air raids on Arhab. It also said that 400 Yemeni officers and troops who refused to attack Arhab villages were killed by the air raids, pointing out that a number of Yemeni pilots who rejected orders of bombardments are still held.

Update: gruesome, state airstrike kills 400 who refused to fight the tribesmen

YP Commander Abu Hatim said the Yemen Air Force are currently using Iraqi pilots at a time when the army is continuing operations in the two districts and that the Iraqis are committing enormous crimes against the Yemeni people.

One of the airstrikes in Arhab district after tribes were said to have seized a republican guard killed at least 400 officers and troops of those who refused to fight the tribes, he was quoted as saying by Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper.

A number of the republican guard camps in Arhab are being cleansed by the army, especially those which refuse to participate in the battles with the tribes, he said, pointing out that the army is also cleansing commanders accused of links with the opposition. (Read on …)

a) Drone attacks with civilian casualties could trigger a civil war if the previously unarmed Southern Movement believes it is being arbitrarily attacked by Saleh’s forces or Mohsen’s. Vid of some aircraft bomber in South Yemen is widely assumed to be Saleh’s air force and is provoking panic at the thought of a new bombing campaign like the one that occurred in Saada. (Update: Vid likely not US, has the wrong contrail, vid recorded yesterday and supposedly hit Abyan City. Whereas US air strike was in Shabwa and days earlier.) (Local reporting on Shibuya.)

Update: CNN reports Abu al Harithy Jr. was in Shabwa and the Yemeni government is taking credit on TV.

A U.S. military official with knowledge of the Yemen campaign told CNN that U.S. military-led air operations recently resumed after a pause of some months. He also said the United States believes it likely killed al-Harithi in an airstrike in southern Yemen in recent days. But he cautioned its “very difficult” to confirm the killing.

The official said the pause was due to the fact the United States “didn’t have faith in the information available,” to conduct targeting against individuals in Yemen during that time frame. He could not say what led to the improved intelligence picture, but the Yemeni government has been absorbed with the anti-government demonstrations raging in big cities and fighting tribal forces.

The US also pledged $26 mil in humanitarian aid today.

b) The embedded links in this section lead to contemporaneous posts on the 2006 trial of the 19 member Zarchawi cell headed by Ali Abdullah Naji Al-Harithi, nicknamed Abu Ali Al-Harithi junior. This is the cell that won its appeal to reduced charges by arguing successfully that its legal under Yemeni law to commit murder abroad in the name of jihad. They admitted traveling to Iraq as well as establishing training camps in Yemen. The cell made explosive belts because John Kerry mentioned something about Yemen during a presidential candidates’ debate, but then when he didn’t win, they claimed at trial they gave the belts to the intelligence services. Al Hairthy was killed in a recent US air strike (Friday 6/3) in Yemen per the NYTimes report below.

c) Another thing I will never understand about US CT policy is why Yemen got a total pass from 2004-2007 when literally thousands of jihaddists, Yemeni and non-Yemeni, were being trained in Yemen to kill US troops in Iraq. There is an incorrect concept that there was little AQ activity in Yemen during that time frame, however Yemen was buzzing with activity, receiving and exporting jihaddists. They would leave by the plane load openly. Its reasonable to say half of US military deaths and injuries in Iraq were perpetrated by individuals who in some way were connected with the Yemeni pipe line. That’s a mind boggling statement when Bush was always whining about Syria letting them into Iraq but never once publicly about Saleh letting them out of Yemen. Overview of Yemenis in suicide ops in Iraq as well as coordination with Baathists in Yemen here. Saddams nephew never located as far as I know.

NYT: June 8, 2011
U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes, By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.

The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.

On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. According to witnesses, four civilians were also killed in the airstrike. Weeks earlier, drone aircraft fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who the United States government has tried to kill for more than a year. Mr. Awlaki survived. (Read on …)

Update: At the Hague, Yemen says they were internationally approved CS and CN types of riot control gasses and, “Despite of the results of this report which refutes the use of toxic gases , the Yemeni government has made a formal request to the World Health Organization to send experts from the organization to examine the cases.” That would be good. via SABA

Original: That makes sense, anybody remember the lab that was found in oh 2009 in Sanaa. The Saddamists in Sanaa have always been a negative influence, including in Saaada, where co-incidentally there were also reports of chemical weapon use. I can’t believe the international community hasn’t rushed in there to test it at the first report and that the US embassy came out with some mealy mouth statement that the US does not have the capacity to determine the ingredients and can’t help in any way on the issue. Imagine the response if it was Iran? If its homecooked, the US really should get some testing going otherwise it is going to be widely perceived as of US origin. And you would think the US would want to know if anyone in Yemen is cooking their own nerve gas for many reasons. Mohammed Qatan is a leading reformist member of Islah. France24 has more doctors disputing the possibility that tear gas caused the symptoms of some protesters.

al Baida News: The protesters called for allowing ambulances to transport the injured, and demanded from the Yemeni army forces to protect them from the special forces, security and ruling party militants, according to one of the protesters.

Medical sources said that the U.S. made gas as it is written on it in bottles

To that revealed to Muhammad Qahtan spokesman for the joint opposition bloc that “they have information that the gas in which they are beating the protesters are prepared in private rooms in the special forces led by the son of Yemeni President Ali Ahmed and Dean are being prepared by Iraqi experts.”

One escapes. Why don’t the drug dealers or tribesmen ever escape prison?

YP An Al-Qaeda suspect escaped from an Aden hospital, with reports suggesting an unknown group could have infiltrated into the hospital and helped him escape. Amin Al-Sayed was arrested along with four other terrorist suspects last week, and was hospitalized at the BaSuhaib military hospital. Last week, the authorities announced the arrest of almost ten Al-Qaeda suspects in Abyan and Hadramout, amid the continuous hunt for and large-scale operations against AQAP militants, mainly in southern, southeastern and eastern regions.

Yemen Post: A Yemeni court specialized in the cases of terrorism in Hadramout sentenced four suspected Al-Qaeda militants between three to five years in prison. (Read on …)

An interesting article today from Norway detailing the relationship and illegal arms transfers between Saddam and Saleh with Shaher Abdulhaq as intermediary. The father of the murdered Norweigan girl made an impassioned plea yesterday for Yemen to turn over Farouk Abdulhaq to stand trial in Norway, but its not likely to happen.

Google translation, Nettavisen: Farouk’s father sold aircraft parts to Saddam

The father of murder suspect Farouk played a key role in illicit weapons sales to the dictatorship, according to the CIA report….

Shaher Abdulhak also has a close relationship with the country’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and must have carried a number of shady business which has violated UN sanctions against Iraq, according to CIA documents. (Read on …)

Update: a good game but they lost!!! They play again Thursday same time. Original: Yemen playing Saudi Arabia in the opening game today, 7:30 pm Aden time, 11: 30 am EST, Watch the pre-game show and the game live, streaming now at http://www.watchfomny.com/Sport-tv-3.php or, if that goes down, click here.

(Read on …)

Earlier report on the trial. Update: note “al Banaa” translates as “construction.”

al Watan مصري درب خليفة الزرقاوي ويرأس استخبارات القاعدة يحاكم في اليمن Egypt trained Zarqawi’s successor is headed by al-Qaeda intelligence on trial in Yemen
الاثنين, 16-أغسطس-2010 Monday, 16 – August -2010
الوطن – كشفت مصادر أمنية عن معلومات جديدة بشأن المصري المقبوض عليه الأسبوع الماضي في محافظة حضرموت اليمنية، على خلفية تولّيه منصباً قيادياً في تنظيم ‘القاعدة’ في اليمن. Home – security sources disclosed new information on the Egyptian arrested last week in the Yemeni province of Hadramaut, on the background taking a leadership position in the organization of ‘bottom’ in Yemen. (Read on …)