Terror Free Somalia: The U.S Navy has intercepted a Somalia bound Yemeni cargo ship carrying weapons suspected to be for Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab militia.Somalia consulate in Yemen said the cargo ship en route from Yemen to Somalia coastline ended up in the hands of U.S Navy at the Gulf of Aden.The Somali consul Hussein Hajji Ahmed said U.S navy opened fire on the ship after the ship captain defied Navy orders to stop the vessel but later surrender to the United States navy.

He added that the ship is suspected of carrying military supplies for the Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia, a clear indication that Yemeni Al-Qaeda supports the militia in terms of weaponry.Ahmed said investigations into the issue are currently underway.He urged the Somali government to boost security along the country’s coastlines and seek supports from the neighbouring countries in making sure that no arms are illegally smuggled into the country through the coastal areas.The U.S has recently received critical information suggesting that Yemeni based Al-Qaeda network provides weapons and other military necessities to Somalia’s Al-Shabaab insurgents fighting the Somali government.

Yesterday, in an interview with Al Sheba, about what promoted the power of “the existence of al-Qaeda in Yemen”, Shekh Sadiq al Ahmar stressed that the so-called al-Qaeda elements are out of the house of the presidency and they exist in an anti-terrorist forces and the Republican Guard and the Central Security, noting that 16 members of Al Qaeda leaders who fled from the prison of Al-Mukalla month the past, “present in the villas in the capital alone to them the system in it.” He added, “The system uses the al-Qaeda bogeyman to extort from the Gulf, and promoted himself to America.”

Second, Shabab fighter Ahmed Warsame, arrested in the Gulf, was brought to the US for trial. Warsame has ties to both AQAP and al Shabab and met Anwar. Awlaki has been pimping al Qaeda to the Somalis since (at least) 2006 when the eight westerners were arrested trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia from Yemen. The enmeshment between al Qaeda in Yemen and al Shabab was politically inconvenient prior to the rev and is an expedient sound bite now.

NYT 7/10: In his remarks on his plane, Mr. Panetta said there were greater dangers to the United States in Yemen. “There’s no question when you look at what constitutes the biggest threat in terms of attacks on the United States right now, more of that comes from Yemen and people like Awlaki,” he said. He added that in Yemen, “There are a number of operations that are being conducted not only by the Defense Department, but by my former agency to try to focus on going after those targets. I would say that’s one of our top priorities right now.”

Fox News: The Somali terror suspect transferred this week to a New York City federal court spent “significant time” with American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, a U.S. official told Fox News.

Ahmed Warsame, described as a senior commander with the Al Qaeda franchise known as al-Shabaab, was in Yemen for one year, Fox News has learned. While there, he met with Awlaki to “build bridges and a closer relationship” between al-Shabaab and the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, the official said.
Warsame was on his way back from Yemen when he was picked up in the Gulf of Aden in April during a U.S. military operation.

Awlaki’s contact with the senior al-Shabaab leader is another indicator, according to U.S. officials, that the first American on the CIA’s kill-or-capture list has reached “the upper echelons” of the group in Yemen — which is seen as the most operational and global franchise within Al Qaeda. Its primary goal is to launch attacks on the United States.

The contact between Awlaki and Warsame is now part of a growing body of evidence that the two franchises are working to develop a closer union. As one U.S. official told Fox News, “Al Qaeda in Yemen wants to be global and is in an expansive frame of mind. Al-Shabaab is physically close and a natural partner to work with.”

As Fox News has previously reported, U.S. officials say they are seeing jihadists from Pakistan traveling to Yemen — which is seen as lawless and without a government since the Yemeni president left the country after he was wounded in a mortar attack.

Meanwhile, the circumstances surrounding Warsame’s capture continue to stir controversy in Washington. Republicans criticized the Obama administration this week for bringing the suspect up on charges in a civilian court after he was detained on a U.S. warship.

DOJ:

AHMED ABDULKADIR WARSAME, aka “KHATTAB,” aka “FARAH,” aka
“ABDI HALIM MOHAMMED FARA,” aka “FAREH JAMA ALI MOHAMMED,”

WARSAME, a Somali national in his mid-twenties, was
captured in the Gulf region by the U.S. military on April 19,
2011, and was questioned for intelligence purposes for more than
two months. Thereafter, WARSAME was read his Miranda rights, and
after waiving those rights, he spoke to law enforcement agents
for several days. Warsame arrived in the Southern District early
this morning, and was arraigned before U.S. District Judge
COLLEEN McMAHON in Manhattan federal court earlier today.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA said: “As
alleged, Ahmed Warsame was a conduit between al Shabaab and al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — two deadly terrorist
organizations — providing material support and resources to them
both.

The Indictment further alleges that from about 2009
until April 2011, WARSAME conspired to provide, and provided
material support to AQAP, in the form of money, training,
communications equipment, facilities, and personnel. While he
was in Yemen in 2010 and 2011, WARSAME allegedly received
explosives and other military-type training from AQAP. In
addition, he allegedly possessed and used grenades and an AK-47
semi-automatic assault weapon in Yemen in furtherance of crimes
of violence.

According to the charges, WARSAME also worked to broker
a weapons deal with AQAP on behalf of al Shabaab. He is also
charged with conspiring from about 2009 until April 2011 to teach
and demonstrate the making of explosives, destructive devices and
weapons of mass destruction, and to distribute such information
to others.
A

AHN: Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab extremists in Somalia have been evacuating its foreign mercenaries from the capital for the past several weeks, and sources close to the militant group indicate that foreign militants within the group have escaped to Yemen where unrest has been raging for the past few months.

An Al-Shabaab fighter who identified himself only as Abu Hureryah told All Headlines News on Tuesday morning that a small boat carrying 76 foreign fighters, including top commanders, sailed from the southern key port town of Kismayo on Sunday evening. Kismayo is about 500 kilometers south of the capital Mogadishu.

He said that the boat headed to Yemen where clashes between government forces and opposition supporters have been taking place since early this year.

“For the past several months we have been losing more lands and many fighters of us were killed, so this time it seems that our brothers in Yemen have more chance than we have here in Somalia so that is why the Mujahideens have left for Yemen,” the militant fighter said during a telephone conversation with AHN.

Third, 7/14/11 A story that a US drone strike on Al Quso was a near miss, and almost identical to the near miss on Awlaki some months ago: at the last minute they jump out of the car just before the drone hits. Amazing.

NYT: SANA, Yemen — American drones and fighter jets hit suspected Qaeda-affiliated militants in southern Yemen early Thursday, killing at least eight fighters sleeping in a police station they had overrun, according to local residents and American and Yemeni security officials.

The strikes were part of an expanded air war in Yemen by the American military aimed at militants who now control large swaths of southern Yemen amid a power struggle in the impoverished desert country.

In recent months, the Obama administration has escalated a campaign of airstrikes carried out by the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command with the assistance of the C.I.A. The C.I.A. is building a base in the region to serve as a hub for future operations in Yemen.

According to both American and Yemeni officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the attacks in Yemen are rarely acknowledged publicly, the strike on Thursday hit a police station that had been occupied by 20 militant fighters in the town of Al Wadyia, in Abyan Province in southern Yemen. One Yemeni security official said that eight people had been killed, including the gathering’s leader, identified as Hadi Mohammad Ali.

Separately, a person close to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group responsible for a wave of violence in Yemen and several terrorist plots against the United States, said an American strike on Thursday hit a car thought to be carrying Fahd al-Qusaa, a leader of the group and a suspect in the 2000 bombing of the American destroyer Cole. The person said that Mr. Qusaa and a group of aides had left the car moments before the attack, and local residents said he had survived.

- Defense Ministry annouced the death of a military commander that belong to Al-Qaeda named Waleed Mushafi Al-Aseri (Waleed Osairi) he is one of the most-wanted to Saudi authorities; when Brigade 25 Mika artillery shelled them yesterday.

Clashes in Abyan have been ongoing for the last 40 days as Islamic militants still control large areas of the province. More than 150 government soldiers have been killed in the ongoing clashes. At least 40,000 Abyan residents fled the province to neighboring Aden escaping death.

- MasdarOnline : four soldiers were executed by militants in Louder , Abyan

AP Yemen airstrikes kill 6 militants, 3 civilians
By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Officials in Yemen say airstrikes have killed six militants and three civilians in southern towns seized by Islamist fighters.
Military officials say the attacks seek to oust militants from Jaar and Zinjibar.
The militant takeovers are part of widening chaos in Yemen since protests broke out in February calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Medical officials say Tuesday’s strikes killed six militants in Jaar.
A lawmaker, Salem Mansour, says an airstrike in Zinjibar killed three civilians. He says another strike hit the home of the deputy parliament speaker, who has joined the opposition. The house was empty.

6/23 Arrested in Egypt

CAIRO — Authorities at Cairo Airport on Thursday detained an Egyptian national suspected of belonging to al Qaeda in Yemen, an airport official said.
Rabie Abdullah, who was traveling under a false name, arrived on a flight from Yemen and was stopped by authorities, the official said. He was traveling with his wife and three children.
The official said Abdullah, who was sentenced by an Egyptian court in absentia to five years in a terror case, had been living in Yemen and is accused of belonging to the al Qaeda group there.

6/12/11 AQAP liaison to al Shabab, mastermind of 1998 bombing, killed in Mogadishu

: The death in Mogadishu of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the mastermind of the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, is a major disruption of Al Qaeda’s efforts to expand its hold on havens in the Horn of Africa, U.S. officials and counter-terrorism experts said Saturday….Mohammed, an East African by birth, was crucial in bringing such groups as the extremist Shabab in Somalia into the Al Qaeda fold, as well as attracting militant movements from other parts of Africa.

He also was a key link between militants in Africa and Al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, immediately across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia.

The L.A. Times reports that Carlos Bledsoe, a Muslim convert and admitted radical who allegedly shot and killed an American soldier and wounded another outside of a recruitment office in Arkansas in 2009, will be tried in a state court on criminal charges instead of facing federal terrorism charges (LAT).

Red Sea piracy may be going multinational – U.S.
Reuters; LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) – Piracy in the Red Sea may be becoming a “multinational” business with Yemenis joining Somalis in the lucrative crime, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

“We are also seeing … perhaps a new business model occurring in the Red Sea and things that we have traditionally labelled exclusively Somali piracy may in fact be multinational piracy,” the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said.

Pirates involved in last month’s killing of four American hostages on a yacht seized near Somalia were both Somalis and Yemenis, while Yemenis were on board a pirate ship recently captured by a Danish warship, he said.

“We may be seeing a situation, as yet unconfirmed, where we have individuals from several nations on the periphery, from states that are not governed well … being involved in piracy,” Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Carson told reporters in London.

Yemen and Somalia are both riven by poverty and instability and are bases for militant groups.

The growing pirate threat to key supply routes in the Indian Ocean has prompted powers including Russia, China, India and Japan to send warships, working loosely alongside Western task forces including those of the European Union, NATO and United States.

But Carson said the problem of Somali piracy would not be resolved on the high seas. “We recognize that the area of the Red Sea is enormous and that you can put hundreds of boats out there,” he said.

The problem could only be resolved “by ending the impunity that exists on land. It will only be resolved when Somalia has a government with a security force, a police apparatus, a court system and laws that allow it to prevent and prosecute pirates who seek to carry out activities offshore,” he said.

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.
The first and the second suspects, Faris Al-Katheri and Rami Al-Saeiri were sentenced to five years in jail. While the third, Basam Hassen Salman was sentenced to three years, and the fourth, Hani Sam Ariqon was sentenced to four years.
The four suspects faced charges of forming a gang for committing criminal and terrorist acts, planning attacks and procuring passports with the intention of using them to join Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. They were also accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda militants from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

It seems as though, every month if not every other week, there is a terror plot that gets disrupted somewhere in the U.S. These plots are in most cases carried out by some so called Muslim jihadist. Every time I hear news of something bad happening somewhere in the U.S, my heart skips a beat and I start to pray that it is not a Muslim person at the helm of it.

The Corvallis, Oregon plot have shocked me even further because the young man who attempted to carry out the crime is from my home land, Somalia. Like me, Mohamed Osman Mohamud is a naturalized American citizen who came to this country as a baby. After listening to stories of friends of the family, I thought the kid was almost born here. He is from a middle class family. His father is an engineer and his mother a stay at home mother who was never absent from his life. Young Osman had everything going for him, a smart young man who was a college student at OSU with a bright future. He had the potential to become anything he set his mind on unlike the many young Somalis that are stuck in Somalia trying to survive flying bullets or those who have no choice but to live in an overcrowded refugee camps with no foreseeable bright future.

As a Somali Muslim American who loves and absolutely adores this wonderful nation, I am completely disturbed, dismayed and saddened by this. We used to be able to argue that the young men that went back to Somalia couple years ago, were brainwashed to go and fight some external forces in their homeland, but how in the world would we justify this one? I keep asking myself, why? What do these people want? Now, I know many Somali and other Muslim Americans that are completely broken by these actions that are being carried out by those so called Muslim radicals not only here but everywhere in the world. However, I feel as though we Muslim Americans and other Muslims around the world are not speaking out loud enough or clear enough against terror. It looks like we are being held hostage by the very few radical terrorists, no matter where we live demographically.

If we Muslims know and understand that terror only kills innocent people, and destroys more Muslims around the world than any other. If we know that these killing machines are giving our faith and Islam a bad name. If some Muslims can even say people like Ayan Hersi, the Swedish Cartoonist and the Indian British novelist, Salman Rushdie should be killed because they’ve said or written unspeakable things against our prophet, Mohamed (SCW). If we can come out in large groups to condemn or issue threats against the Quran burning in Florida, why can’t we more collectively speak up, come out and take to the streets around the world to denounce terror? Why don’t we declare jihad on these cultic gang like animals who we know are not Muslims because their actions are anything but Islam?

Why are we silent? I’ve heard some sporadic Somalis on the news in the past few weeks and days, afraid of retaliation or some kind of back lash. Every time something like this happens, Muslim Americans come out looking like victims. I wonder why that is. Muslim Americans are not second class citizens of this country. This is our country. We should not feel marginalized for being Muslims. We have no excuse to act and feel like victims in this country, because we are not. We live in a civilized society that has law and order as well as ethical and moral code that unites them.

Even if some are hateful against certain group or another, others come to their defense to protect them. It’s a society that protects the bigger picture, the greater good. It is no secret that most of Muslim immigrants in this country came from hostile nations that are either at war or maybe a fear of prosecution. We know what being a victim is like and we certainly are not victims in this country. This country gave us protection, freedom, a safe place to live and to educate our children. We are treated with sense of honor and we’re respected as human beings. I have never in my twenty plus years of living in this country felt that I was not at home. I feel as American as anybody and no one can tell me otherwise. I always look the glass as half full and appreciate everything that God brings my way because if I can be alright anywhere in this world, it’s in this wonderful nation called America. I actually think that I am the most patriotic American I know.

My father worked in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, like many Somalis during the 70,s and 80’s. He was considered luckier than the thousands of Somali men that were working in Saudi Arabia at the time. I say luckier because, when he used to come home for visits, he would tell us stories about Abu Dhabi and his experience there and they were not very pleasant stories to hear. Anyone who was not an Arab and an Emirate was considered a second class citizen and they knew it. No buts or ifs about it and no complaints. Somalis were treated a little better compared to other Muslims from other countries as I was told because they normally wouldn’t accept certain treatments.

Saudi Arabia however, was very different. I remember a friend of mine telling me a story about his experience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was driving and the car in front of him hit his brakes suddenly because the driver was talking to a driver in another vehicle. My friend’s car then hit that car in front of him. The driver came out of the vehicle, walked over to my friend who was still in the car and he started hitting him. He was a Saudi national of course.

He told me that all the other Saudi’s that were passing by come out of their vehicles as well and they all took part of the beating. Traffic came to a standstill and even more people joined in the assault. He was then taken to jail and was deported to Somalia injured. I remember tears running down my cheeks thinking how it could be possible for one human being to treat another this way. That’s what being a victim is like and as Somalis our people see it every day first hand every day in many places of the world.

This kind of behavior was very normal in Saudi Arabia and still is. An uncle of mine also told me that in Saudi Arabia, when you come to a bank or to any other service place, if a Saudi person walks in and sees all foreigners in line, he/she would just go in the front of the line. Just like that. I have heard hundreds of stories like this and worst.

Saudi Arabia still deports Somalis back to Mogadishu, Somalia even though they fled a horrible civil war there. It dumps poor, hungry Somali refugees back to Mogadishu very often. This is not the only Muslim country that Somalis and other Muslim foreigners are treated with horror and with no human dignity at all.

I was lucky enough to have come to this country as a teenager. Even though I was fortunate enough to have missed the mayhem in Somalia, I have not missed the pain. My family lost many loved ones to the war, hunger or the aftereffects of war. Some of our relatives are still missing. The people who have treated each other this way and who are still killing one another after 20 long years have nothing that divides them. They are all Somalis, have one religion and they speak the same language.

The moral of this story is that we Muslim Immigrants shouldn’t feel victimized when some ignorant person says something negative about Islam because they don’t understand. We should feel the need that maybe we as Muslims fail to educate people of other faiths about Islam. Maybe we have failed to live as an example. Maybe we aren’t as inclusive or as welcoming as we should be. Maybe we ask and expect more rights than what we are willing to extend for others. It’s like we Muslims thought to ourselves, well Americans don’t understand or maybe don’t want to understand and we don’t care what they think about our faith! Well, that is not good enough. It’s our duty as Muslims to inform and educate others about our religion vigorously. All that’s seen in the world are some crazy people blowing themselves up and trying to destroy all human beings using the name of Islam. We should do more to respect and honor people of other faiths. Every time the extremist commits a crime against humanity we the moderate Muslims should do something wonderful in the world.

Life is a give and take, a two way street. We shouldn’t let these few isolated sick and hateful terrorists win and make us feel alone in the world because we are not. If we believe in peace as we preach and we know it is the way of our faith, then we must speak up and claim our religion back from the blood thirsty evil terrorists. The Quran says that taking the live of one human being is like destroying all human kind and saving the life of one human being is like saving the lives of all human kind. Then let’s not watch this nonsense anymore.

We Somalis and Muslims in general have a moral responsibility an obligation to defend Islam, not only from none Muslims but from Muslim radicals that are destroying its goodness as well. Its truer today than ever that we’re closer to one another than we’ve ever been. Literally speaking! We are in a global village; we need to coexist peacefully and respectfully.

Islam is not a religion of some lunatic cults that thrive in blowing people up, but the faith of 20.3% of the world population. It’s also the fastest growing religion in the world, which means we are in this together. The world is more integrated today than ever and we are no longer strangers passing by, but intertwine lives of every day. When Muslims say Islam is the faith of peace, it should be believed. The pain of innocent Muslims that are being slaughtered from every front of the world shouldn’t be ignored either.

Anyone who wishes peace for themselves, families, village, country, continent, should want and even demand it for every single human being on earth. Because none of us will have peace unless we all have it. This village called the world belongs to all of us and we’re all responsible for its protection.

Like everyone else, we Muslims are shocked and sadden by the horrible tragedies that are being committed by some psychotic, malicious and hateful murderers that are calling themselves Muslims. May God bless us and protect us all. Aameen!

—-
*Fathia Mohamed Absie is a freelance writer, a contributor at Terror Free Somalia and a WardheerNews Contributor. She is currently working on a documentary film about the Somali youth who went back to Somalia to join Al-Shabab. The film depicts how their actions affected the entire Somali community in the U.S. She can be reached at farhiaa1(at)gmail.com or at terrorfreesomalia(at)gmail.com

The militant commander, who was named Rajah Abu Khalid, a Yemen national, was reported that he was seriously wounded with 13 other fighters and was taken to an Alshabab medical facility in Jowhar district, 90kms from the north of Mogadishu.

Martyr Rajah Abu Khalid, succumbed in Jowhar hospital last night, he died several hours later when he was wounded said an Alshabab sources in conditions of anonymity.

He was the replacer of Abu Musab, the commander of Alqaeda cell in Alshabab in East Africa who died in Mogadishu several months ago the source added.

The transitional government forces confirmed the death of Rajah Abu Khalid and called his death as a loss to Alshabab and its Alqaeda allies.

The commander of governments infantry forces told Sunatimes that they killed several foreign fighters including the commander of Alqaeda cell in Mogadishu who was leading the fighting in north of Mogadishu.

The commander said that On Saturday they killed 13 foreign fighters, among them the most senior of the Alqaeda armed cell in Alshabab Rajah Abu Khalid.

He promised to confirm the names of the others and published them to the media. According to the government the man was the most senior foreign fighter killed in Somalia since the death of Abu Musab, his predecessor, who was killed by the government forces in fighting.

Alshabab militants and its Alqaeda ally are fighting to overthrow the transitional government of Somalia led by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a relatively moderate Islamist who is backed by the international community.

Telegraph: Yemeni officials have claimed that members of the al-Shabaab terrorist group have been arrested in refugee camps for Somalis. The government fears that refugee camps such as Al-Kharaz, which now houses 18,000 out of an estimated 2-300,000 Somali refugees in Yemen, could become recruiting grounds for radicals.

Officials also claim there are “regular links”, including arms transfers between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group accused of planting parcel bombs on planes last month.

“I see Shabaab people on the streets of Aden,” said one former Somali airport official who fled with his family when he was threatened and now lives in a fly-blown two-room hut in the al-Kharaz refugee camp, two hours’ drive into the desert from the port city.

According to sources familiar with the “news News” that the information received by the security forces during the past two days revealed the flight of a group of al Qaeda in Yemen towards the African coast, after coordination with elements of the “youth movement” Somali, weighted by their move to Somalia.

وقالت المصادر: أن ما بين (9- 11) عنصراً من قيادات تنظيم القاعدة، وعناصره الخطرة في اليمن، ممن خاضوا معاركاً مع القوات الحكومية في “مودية” و”لودر” خلال الأسبوع الماضي، تمكنوا من الانتقال إلى “شبوة”، والهروب عبر ساحل “بير علي” بزورق تهريب كان بانتظارهم، وعلى متنه عدد من المسلحين الأفارقة ممن يعتقد انهم من حركة “الشباب” الصومالية- إحدى فصائل القاعدة.. The sources said: that between (9-11) component of the leaders of al Qaeda, and its components hazardous in Yemen, who went to Marka with government forces in the “claiming” and “Lauder” in the past week, they were able to go to the “Shibuya”, and escape through Coast “Bir Ali” smuggling boat was waiting, on board a number of African militants who are believed to be from the movement of the “young” Somali – a faction of al-Qaeda ..

واشارت إلى أن السلطات الأمنية اليمنية وبالتنسيق مع أطراف خارجية تقوم حالياً بتحريات واسعة للتحقق من مدى دقة تلك المعلومات التي أدلى بها “سكان محليون” وصفتهم بأنهم من “المتعاونين مع الأجهزة الأمنية”. She pointed out that Yemen’s security authorities, in coordination with external parties are currently extensive investigations to verify the accuracy of such information made by the “locals” and their status of being “collaborators with the security services.”

ورجحت المصادر أن الأجهزة الأمنية (ربما) تكون قد تلقت إشارة مسبقة بتسلل عناصر تلك المجموعة الى شبوة، حيث أن هذه الأنباء تزامنت مع قيام القوات القبلية “الصحوات” في محافظة شبوة أمس السبت بتدشين عملياتها في مطاردة عناصر القاعدة، وتطهير مناطق مفترضة لتواجدها، والتي باشرتها أمس السبت انطلاقاً من جيل “كور” بمنطقة “الصعيد”، بمشاركة أكثر من ألف رجل مسلح، مدعمين بوحدات من الجيش، وغطاء جوي كثيف.. The source believes that the security services (perhaps) that have been received signal prior infiltration of elements of the group to Shibuya, where this news coincided with the forces, the tribal “Awakening” in the province of Shibuya on Saturday launched its operations in the hunt for al-Qaeda elements, and clear areas of presumed its presence, which initiated on Saturday from a generation “Core” area “level”, with the participation of more than a thousand armed men, were supported by units of the army, air cover and heavy ..

وتعتقد المصادر: أن فرار تلك العناصر جاء على خلفية الهزيمة التي منيت بها القاعدة خلال المعارك الأخيرة في “مودية” و”لودر”، والتي خسرت فيها العديد من عناصرها، فضلاً على اشتداد الخناق عليها، خاصة بعد استعانة الدولة بعدد من القبائل، وتجهيزها لمطاردة عناصر القاعدة في مناطقها- بما يشبه “الصحوات”- الأمر الذي اصبحت في ظله مهددة، ووجودها غير آمن، وذلك لكونها كانت تحتمي في أوساط القبائل. Sources believe: that the escape of those elements came against the backdrop of the defeat suffered by the base during the recent fighting in the “claiming” and “Lauder”, which lost by many of its components, as well as the intensification of grip on them, especially after the use of the State a number of tribes, and equipped to chase Al-Qaeda in their regions – including a kind of “Awakening” – which has become threatened in the shade, and their presence is secure, because they were sheltering in the tribal community.

IRIN: SANAA, 9 August 2010 (IRIN) – Straining to cope with the number of Somalis arriving by boat, Yemen is seeking to end the prima facie refugee status (automatic asylum) it has been giving them for the past 20 years. The government says some are economic migrants and should not be granted automatic refugee status, while others are militants seeking to join al-Qaeda groups to destabilize the country.

“Not all Somalis are fleeing conflict. Many are immigrants who come from safe regions such as Bosasso [port in the Puntland region of northern Somalia] in search of better economic opportunities,” Essam al-Mahbashi, a subcommittee member of the National Committee for Refugee Affairs (NCRA), told IRIN.

He said the emergence of extremist groups in Somalia, such as al-Shabab, is one of the reasons why Yemen wants to scrap the prima facie refugee status policy.

“Members of these groups want to enter Yemen to help the al-Qaeda organization in its plots that target national security and stability,” al-Mahbashi said.

The NCRA, which works with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is mandated to implement the new policy when it comes into effect.

Head of the UNHCR Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, Ambassador Peter Woolcott, visited Yemen from July 5 to July 10 to observe the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons in the country, an especially important visit since the UN refugee agency is in the midst of a funding crisis…“We are dealing with something like 170 thousand refugees and 330 thousand IDPs,” he said. “These are very large numbers from any standpoint.” (—) But he believes that for many, resettlement is only a dream because of the small number of refugees who are able to start new lives in countries outside Somalia.

“Some one thousand are resettled from Yemen each year, but the number of refugees is 130,000,” he said. “They are very dependent on essentially the handouts and generosity of the donor community and UNHCR.” (—) UNHCR Yemen appealed in February 2010 for USD 39.1 million. Afterwards, this figure was revised to USD 52.1 million to cover the needs of both refugees and internally displaced persons in 2010. So far the Yemen Appeal remains funded at just 44 percent of overall needs.