Armies of Liberation

al Qirby- the failure to return the prisoners to Yemen is because Yemen’s refusal to agree to US conditions, Iraq is thinking and no answer from Pakistan.

Almotamar.net – Yemen’s foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has told the parliament on Wednesday that not moving 98 Yemeni detainees out of Guantanamo by the United States of America was attributed to Yemen’s refusal of the American conditions, which, if they were accepted, he said the government would have faced questioning by the MPs. (Read on …)

Mareb Press:

The students of the Faculty of the ninth installment of languages and the number (60 students) had a standing ovation Btakrjhm in the Kingdom Tower restaurant red Sanaa attended by hundreds of parents and their families and of their and their relatives, and in the presence of college professors and their colleagues in other sections, and the presence of the daughter of the Vice-President Saddam Hussein – Dr. / Oguzn Izzat Ibrahim Duri and working with a professor in the College.

The three convicted of spying for Israel Iran! have a whole other back story that has nothing to do with spying but rather a variety of commercial ventures that were in competition with regime associated individuals. Its complicated, but as usual, nothing is as it seems and the judiciary is a political tool.

Marebnews.com

Bassam al-Haydari, who was convicted of collaborating in the interests of Israel a few months before, told from within prison in Sanaa, the details for the first time disclosed a means for information, noting that Ihab Tawfiq was the reason behind the president and his involvement in the issues of terrorism and intelligence with Israel, and defended himself by saying: “God is enough, yes agent “, in reference to what was raised about the mere allegations are false. (Read on …)

How nicely edited this one is and it includes good goverance as a goal…

Cultural Association of Iraqi Youth
established in 2005 to help a generation Iraqis reap the benefits of democracy

General Information
Address: Cultural Association of Iraqi Youth,
Abdelbari i 2, Kut City, Wasit Province, Iraq
Phone: 009647702625845.
E-mail: asd_bad2001@yahoo.com
Registration: General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, Office to assist Non-Governmental Organizations, Registration No. 1z40800, dated 21/9/2005
Target group: Iraqis twelve years and old of both sexes
Funding: Self

The Objectives of the Organization
1- The organization seeks to enfranchise young people in the Iraqi civil and political system by teaching them the technical, administrative and leadership skills necessary to utilize the democratic process.
2- The organization seeks to develop the next generation of national, regional and local leaders with an entrenched set of egalitarian values far from sectarianism, racism, nationalism and geography.
3- The organization seeks to defend the civil rights of Iraqi youth and help them develop strategies to protect and enhance their civil liberties.

Mission Statement
“Awareness of young people and the consolidation of democracy in Iraq opened the way for the growing participation of Iraqi youth in determining the governance and the future of Iraq.” (Read on …)

Full Brochure Available on Request

Brochure about: Babil Center for Human Rights &Civil Development

Iraq\ Middle South Iraq

Iraq\ Babylon government \ Hilla

The founding statement of the Center

After the political change that has been active in Iraq, the movement of spreading the culture of human rights and has been founded to a wide range of associations, institutions and organizations and centers are working to build a new form of culture which tried the former regime ignored and swept under the carpet. . We all work under the banner of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants and conventions in this area. We have achieved many of those centers set of substantive accomplishments, which gave them a reputation that can help to play a definite role in the coming stage.
(Read on …)

Does this include the nephew of Saddam who has the interpol warrent on him for running the northern insurgency (Mosul) from Yemen? It would be good for as many of these Iraqi military to go back to Iraq as possible because they have a negative influence on the stability of Yemen, Sa’ada in particular, and the region.

Kurdish Globe: The advisors of Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, held several meetings with members of dissolved Baath Party (Saddam’s Party) and former officers of Iraqi Army in neighbouring countries in an attempt to listen to their demands before returning to Iraq and participating in the political process.

In the beginning of February 2009, Iraqi government opened five offices in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and United Arab Emirates to negotiate with former members of Baath Party and persuade them to return to Iraq….

Meanwhile, the hardline members of Baath Party rejected the repeated calls for national reconciliation by the Shia-dominated government.

“The Baath and its men reject… meetings, dialogue and agreement with the collaborators, spies and traitors,” said a statement on the Baath party’s official website. The party is believed to be headed by Saddam’s former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who eluded US attempts at capture after the 2003 invasion.

In the tangled web of the prolonged insurgency, secular Baathist groups often allied themselves with al Qaeda’s religious fanatics, local criminal gangs and foreign intelligence agencies to carry out devastating attacks that have killed tens of thousands of people over the years and triggered sectarian warfare in Baghdad.

Yemen Online

Senior Iraqi officers and citizens in Yemen to go back home, Iraqi sources confirmed. (Read on …)

We knew this already, yes? That was the problem with the Somalis when they were demonstrating a year or two ago. The Somali refugees said the UN office in Yemen wasn’t processing paperwork (who’s paying for that slow down?) and discouraged them overtly. According to the Iraqi refugees, the UN office is extorting $10,000 to process documents.

There are some international orgs working in Yemen cleanly, like MSF for one, but others get sucked into the corrupt environment. Foreigners who can’t be bribed are sometimes overtly blackmailed or obliquely coerced by such tactics as threatened visa refusal.

This is part of the reason why Yemen, the real Yemen, is such a black hole, many Westerners go easy on the regime and self censor because those who don’t can’t come back and would lose their livelihood.

YemenOnline. Feb 18, 2009 – In a raging environment, a number of discontented Iraqi families headed for the gate of UNHCR office in Yemen where they tore up their own asylum and resettlement documents issued by UNHCR Yemen in protest to the degradation, ill-treatment and continuous extortion they received from UNHCR staff, as well as in protest to the violations against the international humanitarian laws.

A number of Iraqi refugees in Yemen said that UNHCR staff used to treat them with contempt and refuse to receive their resettlement documents to be processed and renewed. They added that a minimum of US$ 10,000 has to be paid to staff in order for the resettlement documents to be processed.

On a related note, Iraq issued a call for former Army officials to return, but there’s so many former Saddamists in high ranks in the Yemeni army now that I wouldn’t expect a mass migration of military personnel. The Saddamists impact on Yemeni policy, the military, the jihaddi rat trail and the Sa’ada War should not be underestimated, by any means. Thousands of Hussain’s officials and their money fled to Yemen at the start of the Iraq War.

Zawya

(AFP) – Iraq has invited soldiers who served under Saddam Hussein’s regime to come home or apply for their state pensions as part of a reconciliation process, the defence ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

The ministry is to send envoys to Iraqi embassies in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to make contact with the ex-soldiers, General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.

“The ministry’s decision aims to achieve national reconciliation” and “settle the issue of members of the former regime,” he said. Askari said that the former soldiers would “without exception” be given one month either to sort out their entitlement to a pension or to return to the ranks of the army….

According to another defence ministry official, an estimated 23,000 ex-Iraqi army soldiers, including 9,000 officers, have taken refuge in the five Arab countries.

What happened to Abu Yahya? Abu Osama, maybe its Saad, Hamza. Joking, of course…

From Empty Quarter:
Abu Osama of Jund al-Yemen “also said that Abyan, Shabwa, Hadhramout, Marib, al-Jawf and Sa’ada are on the verge of falling into al-Qaeda control. He also predicted more confrontations with Yemeni security forces in the near future, saying that the government’s efforts at negotiation with al-Qaeda had come to an impasse. He pledged attacks against military, oil and tourism targets.” (emphasis added)

Yemen Observer Over 300 young Yemeni men affiliated with al-Qaeda traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia for Jihad in 2008, said an alleged al-Qaeda military leader on Wednesday.

“More than 300 young men from the land of Yemen, who are members of our organization joined their brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia during 2008,” said Abu Osama, a member of the military council of al-Qaeda and the commander of the Yemen Brigades. (Fatah al Islam? Lebanon, no?)

In a statement published by the local weekly independent newspaper al-Wasat, Abu Osama claims that al-Qaeda in Yemen has become stronger than ever. He also said mediation between al-Qaeda and the Yemeni government remains deadlocked. (Read on …)

That’s a good point and this is an interesting analysis on Yemen’s external affairs from the Yemen Post, if only because it says some different things. The relationship between Iran, Yemen and the war in Iraq is an important point. (There’s no mention of Syria, Iran’s proxy state but if you take a good look at Yemen and Syria, you get a sense of things.) Yemen is the playground between Saudi Arabia and Libya, and the Sa’ada War in some ways reflects that.

Yemen has a strategic location; however, there has been constant increase of weakness points and waste of strength factors. The strategic location is connected with the interests of regional and international powers. What happens nowadays is a clear manifestation of the feverish conflict between these countries over the Yemeni field.

Active Diplomacy

The authority has turned to be diplomatically active and through different manifestations:

- President Saleh made two telephone calls with Libyan President Col. Mu’amar Al-Qadhafi and Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

- Sending Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs Rashad Al-Alimi to Saudi Arabia.

- Sending Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi to Oman

- Sending Col. Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, Commander of the Republican Guards, to the United Arab Emirates.

Regional Struggle

At the present time, there are four main players in the Yemeni field: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya and Qatar and these contesting parties have different goals to achieve. (Read on …)

AP

Yemen identifies attackers in US embassy attack

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — The suicide squad that assaulted the U.S. embassy in Yemen in September had links to al-Qaida and some even had fought in Iraq, a Yemeni security official said Saturday.

The official added that the United Nations has raised its security level in Yemen in response to terrorist threats.

The six Yemeni men who carried out the Sept. 17 attack against the gates of the U.S. embassy were trained at al-Qaida camps in the southern Yemeni provinces of Hadramut and Marib and three of them had recently returned from Iraq, the official added.

Of course, performing “jihad” (a/k/a/ murder) in Iraq is legal in Yemen. The Yemeni judical system doesn’t even take into account if the returning “jihaddists” killed innocent Iraqi civilians or Iraqi police. So murder abroad carries no legal sanction in Yemen no matter who gets killed even kids.

I’m not posting the link to the following but it reminds me of the article by the Iraqi journalist who was on a Yemenia flight to Syria. He wrote there were a over a dozen jihaddists on the flight openly talking about going to fight in Iraq. That was after the National Security took over jursidiction of the airports from the Political Security in November 2006.

Al-Furqan media, the mouthpiece of the ISI has now released a new 41-minute video featuring a number of istishahadah (martyrdom attacks) carried out by foreign mujahideen in Iraq. The video is the third of a series called “Knights of Martyrdom.”

A major part of the video has been dedicated to a spectacular attack that destroyed the Badosh bridge, Northern Mosul, in May 2007. The attack was carried out by a Yemeni mujahideen going by the name Abu Huzeifa. He drove his explosives-packed truck past the security post at the entrance of the bridge, and detonated it about 150 meters further. The explosion was massive, causing the bridge to collapse. According to al Qaeda foreign mujahideens’ records released earlier this year by CTC, Abu Huzeifa was an arm-dealer from the city of Taez in Yemen. He arrived in Iraq via Syria, and registered as a martyrdom seeker on entering the country. He was 28 years old when he carried out the attack.

This from the CTC is also interesting. Its information from captured documents about assorted foreign fighters in Iraq. You’ll notice some patterns. I’m surpirsed they published so much personal information. There’s a lot more Yemenis listed at the link, this is just a sample. Its really sad that all these young guys get brainwashed into thinking their greatest contribution in life and to the world is to kill themselves.

Name: Raffat Abd Allah Al Amoudi
Alias: Abu-Azzam
Address: Yemen- Aden
Telephone:
Birth Date: 1982
Arrival Date: //
Contribution: //
Sake keeping: passport/ Identification/ Watch
Coordinator: Abu Mussab
Where do you know the coordinator from: Through a brother came back from Iraq
How did you arrive to Syria? Airplane
Stages of arrival to Iraq: Egypt, Syria

Document Summary: This document contains personal information of three individuals, one fighter and two suicide bombers. The first was Hamad ‘Abdallah al-Mutayri, also known as Abu-Hajar, a suicide bomber from Saudi. The second was Sami Ahsan al-Jufi, also known as Abu-Asid al-Jufi, a fighter from Yemen. And the third was al-Mutawakkil ‘Ala-Allah Mahdi, also known as Abu-al-Fida’, a suicide bomber from Yemen.
(Page 1 of 1)
Name: Hamad ‘Abdallah al-Mutayri
Alias: Alu Hajar [TC: they misspelled it, instead of Abu-Hajar]
Country: Saudi Arabia
Telephone: House/ 009664545217
Facilitator: —————
Occupation: Suicide bomber
Deposits: Passport
Donations: A watch/ 400 USD
Name: Sami Ahsan al-Jufi
Alias: Abu-Asid al-Jufi
Country: Yemen/ San’a’
Telephone: His brother/ 00967733821512- House/ 00967274750
Facilitator: ‘Abd-al-Hay
Occupation: Fighter
Deposits: Passport/ Identification card
Donations: A watch
Name: al-Mutawakkil ‘Ala-Allah Mahdi
Alias: Abu-al-Fida’
Country: Yemen/ San’a’
Telephone: House/ 009671544144
Facilitator: al-Haram al-Jurbani/ Salim al-Dulaymi
Occupation: Suicide bomber
Deposits: Passport
Donations: 240 USD
[End of Translation]
(Read on …)

Good topic. FYI I didn’t write this article and Jane’s is not me. Jane’s Intelligence Digest is published by Janes Information Group, which produces independent publications on the defense, security, transport and law enforcement sectors. Jane’s Information Group and associated publications like Janes Defense Weekly are in no way associated with the British military or the US Pentagon and are not published by any government. (D’oh, the regime idjits misunderstooded.)

An important point raised by this article is the collusion between criminal elements in Iraq and in Yemen, and the extent to which the smuggling pipelines of all sorts are within the domain of officials in the Yemeni adminstration. There are well established transportation routes between Yemen and Iraq upon which persons and contraband pass both ways.

In the last three years, Yemen has become a centre for trafficking Iraqi women.

In Yemen, this has focused on transhipment; the women are brought to Yemen and then sold to clients in other countries, mainly the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries.

A number of factors have contributed to Yemen’s development as a centre for human trafficking. Yemen is relatively close to the GCC countries and the Yemeni police are either unwilling or unable to stop or impede the traffickers.

Trafficking not only exacts a terrible cost in human terms but also contributes to the continued instability of Iraq. The amount of money being generated through the sale of these women is substantial. While most of the money generated through the trafficking operation remains in Yemen, some of the money is returned to Iraq where it helps fund additional criminal activity.

Given the continued instability in Iraq and the lack of enforcement in Yemen, it seems certain that even more women will be sold into sexual slavery this year.

RFERL

Meanwhile, a Yemeni state security court of appeals this week reduced a jail term for a national convicted of trying to go to Iraq for jihad. Bashir Muhammad Nu’man was sentenced last week to five years in prison for using a forged passport to travel to Syria with the intention of joining Al-Qaeda. The appeals court reduced the sentence to two years in prison for Nu’man, who was said to have been arrested in Syria and extradited to Yemen in February 2007, reportedly without offering any explanation….

Some neighboring states have taken the initiative to secure their borders with Iraq. Indeed, it does not appear that Arab foreign fighters have had any success in crossing the Kuwaiti, Saudi, or Jordanian borders into Iraq.

Syria has long been considered the main access point for foreign fighters, and despite some claims that the Syrian authorities are taking steps to control that flow, it is clearly not doing enough. Likewise, Iran has been reported to be another entry point for foreign fighters, particularly for Arabs entering Iraq from Afghanistan. Until Iraq can improve security along its porous borders with Iran and Syria, the problem will remain a major impediment to Iraqi security for years to come.

Of course Saleh was in on it.

CIA website

Possible Yemeni Breaches of UN Sanctions

2001: Government of Yemen Offers to supply Military Goods to Iraq
Recovered documents refer to the Yemen Ambassador meeting with the Iraqi military to discuss a list of guaranteed military materials. According to the documents, the President of Yemen gave his blessing to support the effort to supply military goods to Iraq.

A letter from the Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed dated 23 March 2001 speaks of a meeting with the Republic of Yemen’s Ambassador, Mr. Abid Al-Malek Saeed. The letter states that Yemen had been helping the Iraqi Armed forces through a Yemeni business-man named Mr. Shaher Abid Al Haqq.

Reference is given to a meeting held 19 February 2001, were the Yemeni side was ready to export military materials from Yemen and Ethiopia to Iraq. The letter indicates the President of Yemen, Ali Abid Allah Salah, gave his blessing to the deal and that the Iraqis were given guarantees for the spare parts. These parts were specifically drawn from the stocks of the Yemeni armed forces, air force, army aviation and included armor, trucks, and weapons.

A follow-up meeting was held on 22 March 2001, which included the Yemeni Ambassador and Mr. Al-Haqq. Al-Haqq and the Ambassador provided the Iraqi military with a list of guaranteed available military materials and prices. Al-Haqq also revealed that he had met with the President Salah who had given his blessing for these efforts and support. The letter indicates that the President Salah, “believes that the support of Iraq with the proposed exports is necessary” and he had made calls to his brother, an Air Force Commander, asking him to present everything possible to Iraq, even if he has to take supplies from the Yemeni Air Force and ask Russia and others for replacement material.

Arab billionaire’s son: ‘I didn’t kill party girl’

Source: Metro

Tuesday, March 25, 2008- The son of an Arab billionaire businessman who left Britain hours before a Norwegian friend was found dead has denied killing her. (Read on …)

Anglo-American?

al-Motamar:

Almotamar.net – An official source revealed on Saturday that Yemeni authorities received a note from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mentioning that American forces are detaining 16 Yemeni citizens in Iraqi prisons since the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq five years ago and that no charge has been directed to them and have not stood trial.

The source told almotamar.net that the ICRC says the situations of the prisoners are very difficult and their health condition is in a state of continuous deterioration, indicating that he met the Yemeni prisoners during one of his visits to a number of Iraqi prisons to see situations of prisoners there the beginning of this year.

According to the memo of the ICRC received by the Yemeni ministry of human rights the imprisonment of the Yemeni citizens were among storming campaigns carried out by American forces against some residential quarters in Baghdad and Basra to arrest Arab residents there. American forces justifications for arresting Arab residents in Iraq was under allegation that they were present in Iraq for resistance, indicating that the Yemeni prisoners mentioned that they were in Iraq three years before the American invasion and some of them were working in trade.

The ICRC says the prisoners in the Iraqi prisons are suffering from difficult health conditions, including the 15 Yemeni prisoners.

From Tom Joscelyn writing at the Weekly Standard about the Pentagon report issued summarzing information gleaned from Iraqi Intelligence documents captured by the US (The Institute for Defence Analyses, The Iraq Perspectives Project):

One of those documents is a provocative letter from the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. Dated January 17, 2003, the letter is addressed to Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its subject is listed as “Al-Qa’eda Activities.” Here is the relevant portion of the U.S. government’s translation of the document…

2- The Yemeni (Abu-Muhammad) was sent to Algeria carrying a passport with the name Saydi Ahmed Habiballah, to contact the Algerian “Salafist group for the calling of Jihad” and deliver money to them; however he was killed in an armed skirmish between Algerian security forces and the above-mentioned group. Algerian authorities were able to trace his real name and his families [sic] address in cooperation with the Yemeni embassy in Algeria. His real name is (‘Imad ‘Abdul-Wahid Rahman ‘Ulwan) from the “Ta’iz” village and he was a member of Al-Qa’eda.

A careful reading of the translated letter raises a number of questions and observations….

• Note, again, the level of granular detail source 6841 knows about the Yemeni al Qaeda member “Abu-Mohammed.” Source 6841 knows: the name on his fake passport (“Saydi Ahmed Habiballah”), his mission (to “deliver money” to an al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria), the fact that he was “killed in an armed skirmish” between Algerian authorities and al Qaeda, and that Algerian authorities were able to identify him as an al Qaeda member with Yemen’s help. Again, how does he know all of that?

• According to source 6841, “Abu Mohammed” was to deliver money to the Algerian “Salafist group for the calling of Jihad.” This is a known al Qaeda affiliate, commonly referred to as the Algerian GSPC. The GSPC grew out of an al Qaeda cadre called the “GIA,” and according to intelligence collected by the CIA, Saddam was funding that group in the early 1990’s. Moreover, according to documents discovered in Baghdad (and which were not discussed in the IPP study) Saddam’s regime was training GSPC members in Iraq from 1999 to 2002. So, Saddam’s regime had long-standing ties to the al Qaeda’s Algerian affiliate–the same group “Abu Mohammed” was sent to deliver cash to.

From the 92 page summary of the 2000 page report summarizing the 600,000 documents, Iraqi Intelligence discovers a terror group in Bahrain that is an arm of bin Laden threatening Kuwait under direction from leadership in Yemen.

page 3 (inventory held at the Iraqi embassy from a memo dated July 2002)

Sana’a [Yemen] – Missile launcher, missile, plastic explosives and explosive charges

page 33
A directive (Extract 24) from the Director for International Intelligence in the IIS to an Iraqi operative in Bahrain orders him to investigate a particular terrorist group there, The Army of Muhammad.
Extract 24.
[July 2001]
We have learned of a group calling themselves The Army of Muhammad… has threatened Kuwaiti authorities and plans to attack American and Western interests …We need detailed information about this group, their activities, their objectives, and their most distinguished leaders. We need to know [to] whom they belong to and with whom they are connected. Give this subject your utmost attentIOn….
.
The agent reports (Extract 25) that The Army of Muhammad is working with Osama bin Laden.
Extract 25.
[9 July 200 1]

Information available to us is that the group is under the wings of bin Laden. They receive their directions from Yemen. Their objectives are the same as bIll Laden…

Coincidentally, the Aden Abyan Islamic Army is known as the Army of Mohammed. The Australian Terrorist Organization Listing:

Islamic Army of Aden
Listed in Australia 11 April 2003 and re-listed 11 April 2005 and 31 March 2007

(Also known as the Aden Abyan Islamic Army, Islamic Army of Aden Abayan, Aden Islamic Army, Muhammed’s Army, Army of Mohammed, Jaish Adan al Islami)

Current status of the Islamic Army of Aden (Read on …)

LAT:

BAGHDAD — Young, lonely and struggling to make a mark.

The U.S. military Sunday presented a profile of foreign fighters, who are blamed for about 90% of the suicide bombings that have claimed thousands of lives in Iraq. It was based on interrogations of 48 men captured by U.S.-led forces here in the last four months, Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith told reporters at a briefing inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.

Smith said most militants were single men in their late teens and early 20s recruited by Al Qaeda in Iraq, a largely homegrown Sunni Arab militant group that the U.S. military says is led by foreigners. They typically come from large, lower-income families in which they struggled to be noticed. (Read on …)

Is this is the guy who was going to Iraq with five others and got turned around in Syria and headed to Lebanon where he was captured with Fatah Al-Islam? Or is it another one with the same story? He gets five years for document fraud. Most jihaddis traveling to Iraq with false passports get three years. Let see how long he stays in for, if he goes to jail at all. So the payment is in Saudi funds, that says something. But al-Motamar in one article says 400 and in the next says 4000 SR. News Yemen says 4000 SR.

almotamar.net – The Specialised Criminal Court approved Tuesday fixing the date of next Saturday to pronounce verdict against the defendant accused of being affiliated to al-Jihad group.

In the first sitting for trial of the defendant held Tuesday the accusation statement was read out and included that the accused had forged a passport and personated his brother Sanad and used that to travel to Iraq and mislead authorities at the airports of Sana’a, Cairo and Damascus.

Judicial sources disclosed to almotamar.net the arrest of the accused Bashir Raweh Nouman in late of Muharam month of Hegira year in Syria while he was leaving for a camp of Fatah al-Islam of al-Qaeda organisation for training there and pointed out his being handed over to Yemen after he was arrested in the Syrian city of Hims.

In his reply to the court question he said he received 400 Saudi riyals from a person called Khalil who had asked him to go to Iraq for Jihad and coordination for him with other persons to receive him at airports.

In another case the Specialised First Instance Criminal Court in Sana’a condemned the defendant Tawfiq Abdullah Yahya al-Maswari of highway robbery that resulted in killing and sentenced him to death.

Five year sentence

almotamar.net – The Specialised Criminal Court in Yemen on Saturday condemned defendant Bashir Mohammed Raweh of his affiliation with the Jihad Group and al-Qaeda organisation and that is in its second sitting of his trial.

The Judge Muhsin Alwan, chairman of the court decided to give the defendant five-year sentence staring from the date of his arrest.

Representative of prosecution had in the sitting of last Tuesday read the indictment which included that Raweh had forged a passport, impersonation of his brother Sanad and using it in travelling to Iraq as well as misleading authorities at the airports of Sana’a, Cairo and Damascus.

In reply to a question by the court the defendant said he received a sum of 4000 Saudi riyals from a person called Khalil who told him to go to Iraq for jihad and coordination with other persons to receive him at the airport.

Judicial sources revealed to almotamar.net that the defendant Bashir Raweh Nouman was arrested in Syria late of the Hegira month Muharam last year while he was leaving for a training camp of Fatah al-Islam, affiliate of al-Qaeda organisation before he was handed over to Yemen.

February 2, 2008 – Yemeni court convicted on Saturday Bashir Mohammad Noaman of connection to al-Qaeda in Yemen and counterfeiting official documents and a passport in order to travel to fight American forces in Iraq.

In the hearing session headed by the judge Mohasen al-Wan, the court issued a sentence of 5 years in prison against him.

The defendant admitted for the first time that he forged passports and misled authorities in Sana’a, Cairo and Damascus airports.

He further acknowledged that he received 4000 Saudi rials from the so-called Khalil who coordinated to receive him in an airport in Syria.

The Syrian authorities had extradited Noaman, 28, to Yemen after it arrested him in February 2007 while he was trying to go to Lebanon to join a training camp of al-Qaeda there.

New York Times:

BAGHDAD — As jubilant Iraqi soldiers celebrated Army Day by dancing and chanting anti-insurgent slogans inside a downtown office building here on Sunday, a suicide bomber tried to shove his way through the gate.

When four Iraqi soldiers moved to block the bomber from entering, he detonated his explosive vest, killing at least the four soldiers and wounding at least six people, according to the Iraqi police and military officials. There were differing accounts of the death toll, with some saying as many as 11 had been killed, but they could not be confirmed.

“The suicide bomber was very young,” said an Iraqi police officer who declined to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to the news media. “We found his severed head, and we found a Yemeni identification card near the rest of his body.”

A military officer with the 11th Iraqi Army Division who also spoke on condition of anonymity praised the four soldiers’ sacrifice. “If they had allowed him to enter the building, even more people would have been killed,” the officer said.

The Iraqi authorities said they suspected that the bomber was sent by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a mostly homegrown insurgent group that American intelligence agencies say has foreign leadership. Many of the group’s suicide bombers have been recruited abroad and smuggled into Iraq from neighboring countries.

(CNN) — More than 200 Saudi and foreign militants have been arrested over their alleged involvement in plots that included assassinations and an attack on an oil facility, Saudi officials say.

The arrests took place over the past few months but were kept secret so as not to jeopardize ongoing investigations, a Ministry of the Interior official said Wednesday.

The 208 militants were alleged to be plotting an attack on an oil facility in the Eastern Province, where much of the nation’s oil industry is based, and had set a date for the attack.

Another militant cell is alleged to have planned to assassinate Saudi religious figures and security officials, while a separate cell allegedly planned to smuggle eight shoulder-fired rockets into the kingdom from Yemen for terrorist operations.

The official said 112 of those arrested were “linked in with elements stationed abroad who facilitate the exit and travel of those to conflict zones” such as Iraq.

U.S. military officials have said that Saudis make up the largest contingent of foreign fighters in Iraq, while a Saudi counterterrorism official noted that fighters returning from Iraq to Saudi Arabia represent a “troubling” phenomenon.

Thirty-two individuals — Saudis and non-Saudis — were arrested for allegedly providing financial support to other militants; 16 others were arrested for alleged involvement in the publication of a militant newsletter called Sada Alrafidain.

According to the Saudi counter-terrorism official, the number of arrests is the largest ever announced by the ministry.

The Saudi official said the Saudi government released the information before the Hajj pilgrimage season, when 2 million pilgrims travel to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, in order “to alert the public of the ongoing threat to security in the kingdom.”