Armies of Liberation

Trend: Dozens of armed tribesmen stormed a police station and a central prison in Yemen’s southern province of Lahj early Tuesday, releasing 20 prisoners, security officials said.

Two groups of tribesmen raids the two sites, which share one buliding in Tuban district, and freed 20 prisoners following clashes with guards around the building, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

No casualties have been reported, he added.

One of the guards said they were unable to counter the heavy shootings by the armed tribesmen, who were backed by members of the separatist Southern Movement in Lahj, and finally surrendered.

Lahj, some 337 km northwest of the capital Sanaa, is a key stronghold of the Southern Movement.

SANAA, July 15, 2011

Saleh and Al-Qaeda: Who Empowered Who? BY: Nedhal Moqbel

The current Yemeni scene is full of question marks regarding the country’s present and future. Opponents are still protesting in the North, Southerners are maintaining their call for secession, and violent conflicts dominate the situation of this fragile country. Amidst this dilemma, Al-Qaeda has strongly reemerged and taken over Zinjibar, the capital city of the Southern governorate of Abyan, simultaneously extending its control throughout the entire governorate.

President Saleh did send his intended message to prove right his previous warning. “If I quit, Al-Qaeda could take over,” he once said in response to the mass protests in Taiz and Sanaa. There is no doubt that Saleh is replaying the terrorism card in an attempt to protect his reign. Logically, how could a small number of Al-Qaeda fighters, who came down some Abyan mountains, besiege and defeat two prominent brigades in Abyan (25th Mechanized and Al-Amaliqa)? How could they quickly capture Zinjibar and gain control of the government facilities? How can one believe that an entire government, with huge government troops, could fall into the hands of a few hundred fighters?

On the other hand, one wonders how Southern fighters in Radfan, whose number is much larger that of Al-Qaeda militias, have not been able to defeat only two battalions of government troops there. For several months, these fighters, who came from multiple areas to defend Radfan, could not put an end to their fierce battles with the government forces. These troops have besieged the area, frequently shelled it, and fought with all kinds of weapons.

Therefore, what happened in Abyan was not a real battle but an obvious collusion whose outcome was the handing of the governorate to an armed terrorist group. This collusion reveals close ties and mutual benefits between Saleh’s government and Al-Qaeda, which goes back to the 1990s. Several times, Saleh’s government allowed and eased the escape of a countless number of Al-Qaeda inmates from Yemeni prisons. In 2003, for example, eight of those prisoners involved in the Al-Qaeda Cole operation in Aden escaped, and about twenty-two others followed them later. In 2006, twenty-three Al-Qaeda prisoners fled a Sanaa jail, and much more (around sixty-three inmates) escaped last month from a prison in Mukalla.

Plausibly, Saleh and Al-Qaeda have empowered each other for decades. This group sprang from Saleh’s own Republican Palace to be his fundamental card through which he got more Western support and fought his internal enemies. When the world is angry at him, Saleh would imprison his Al-Qaeda men to calm it down. But when he needs them, the world would wake up to news of their escapes.

One guard was killed during the 8 am prison break by 63 prisoners through a tunnel 35 meters long, some were convicted some never tried, many arrested for traveling to Syria to go the Iraq. From Bakeel.net the info and the names are here.

a) the prison warden was replaced two weeks prior to the escape

b) 12 dangerous al Qaeda transferred in to the Hadramout prison from Sanaa prison prior to the escape (just like Jaber Elbaneh was transferred into Sanaa prison before the 2006 escape)

c) later Wednesday firing heard from jail and strange men wandering the streets with guns asking for water

d) use of a drill (like Sanaa escape 2006, as I noted at the time) (Read on …)

The escape is one part of the state’s plan of generating al Qaeda chaos. There is a high likelihood that the escape was arranged by the head of the security forces like Ahmed, Saleh’s son or one of the nephews. These officials are also the US’s important partners in counter-terror efforts and have been the recipients of millions in counter-terror funding.

The Saleh regime has repeatedly released al Qaeda prisoners over the years often in exchange for support as mercenaries. Individual jihaddis were released to go fight in Saada, but larger scale escapes and releases (like the 109 released in 2009 or the escape in 2006) are a habitual characteristic of the Saleh regime and generally part of a much larger deal. . The international media is uniformly reporting idiotic statements like this from Fox: Wednesday’s escape was the latest sign that Yemen’s months-long upheaval has emboldened Al Qaeda militants to challenge authorities in the country’s nearly lawless south. No, they are not challenging the authorities but working in concert with them.

Yemen Post: 62 Al-Qaeda Prisoners Escape Yemen Prison
At least 62 suspected al-Qaeda prisoners escaped from the central security prison in the southern city of Mukalla Wednesday morning.

One security personnel was killed as well as a prisoner. The security official said that a number of the escaped prisoners were arrested after coming back from Iraq, where they were fighting American forces. This is considered the biggest prison breakout for suspected al-Qaeda suspects.

Opposition forces are blaming senior military officials with close links to President Saleh for allowing and easing the escape of al-Qaeda prisoners to cause chaos in the south and get more US support and prolong the Saleh regime.

This comes at the time where the assistant secretary of state is visiting Yemen. He said the the majority of the escapees had court sentences of over five years in prison on terror charges.

More to come

Sahwa Net- Well-informed sources have accused a high-ranking military commander close to President Ali Abdullah Saleh of plotting to release Al-Qaeda suspects in Hadhramout governorate. (Read on …)

The clufu continues. The following is an excerpt (googlish) of a report from Bakeel.net (of the Bakil tribe) on the prison break and chaos in Zinjibar that includes some statements by former Interior Minister Hussain Arab, who issued the travel docs to al Nashiri in 2000. I think the irony of his statement accusing Saleh of activating al Qaeda is lost on him.

Bakeel.net

And spread by masked gunmen in downtown Zanzibar and streets and government institutions, while the city has been witnessing an exodus of the population. As the region is witnessing violent clashes between insurgents and Brigade 125 in the city of Zanzibar, where the use of various heavy weapons and Alkhvivip. Gunmen stormed the central prison in the city was the release of detainees inside and according to eyewitnesses. The city has the widespread looting on the institutions and government facilities. And accused former Interior Minister Hussein Mohammed Arab regime of President Saleh al-Qaeda support through the “handing over” a number of cities Abyan governorate, which led to a regulation on the control of the reins in Zanzibar. (Read on …)

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 …)

Jamestown: In January 2009, Nasir al- Wuhayshi (a.k.a Abu Basir) appeared on a video to announce the merger between al-Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen under his command. The new organization was given the name Qaedat al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula, or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Al-Wuhayshi was surrounded by three leaders of AQAP, his fellow Yemeni Qasim al-Rimi, who was reportedly killed in an airstrike in January (Yemen Observer, January 16) and the Saudis Said al-Shihri and Mohammed al-Ofi. Each of the four men made a statement about the evolution of their group (Al-Jazeera, January 29, 2009). [1] The leadership of AQAP made it clear that, in addition to targeting the near enemy in Sana’a and Riyadh, it would target Western interests and ultimately the West itself. But before the end of the year, the organization went even further, conducting the most serious terrorist operation to affect the American homeland since 9/11. (Read on …)

Recaptured after a few hours or two days.

Update 2: Ministry of the Interior denies escape occured.

Update: Reportedly recaptured.

Its not the second escape this year but the third. There was another seven in August who escaped jail, in between the 23 in February and this 13.

Sana’a – Thirteen men reportedly suspected of having links to al-Qaeda terrorist activities have escaped from a prison in north- western Yemen, a press report said Saturday.

The report by the Ray News website said the 13 were suspected members of al-Qaeda and that they escaped from a jail in the Hajja province, some 130 kilometres north east of the capital Sana’a. ‘Some of the escapees held Arab nationalities,’ said the report.

Interior Ministry officials confirmed the reported escape, but they told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the jail breakers were were not detained over terror-related charges. Five had been recaptured over the past two days, they added.

The officials said investigations were underway to find out how the detainees managed to escape. The men had been extradited by Saudi authorities after they infiltrated Saudi territory seeking better jobs.

It was the second jailbreak in Yemen this year after 23 al-Qaeda operatives escaped from an intelligence jail in Sana’a on February 3.

The men tunnelled their way out of the high-security intelligence prison. The mass escape embarrassed the Yemeni government and dealt a major blow to its efforts to pursue supporters of al-Qaeda.

Among the February escapees were 13 convicts in the 2000 bombing of the US destroyer USS Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden and the bombing of the French oil tanker.

Nine of the escapees have been recaptured or gave themselves up to the authorities, including six convicted in the oil tanker attack.

On September 15, two of the February jail breakers were among four suicide bombers who carried out attacks at two oil facilities in eastern Yemen, according to officials.

© 2006 dpa – Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Also the report fails to mention that of the February escapees, eight of the eleven re-captured were subsequently released based on the personal guarantee of Sheikh Tarek Fadli.

Also of the 23, Fawaz al-Raibee and Mohammed al-Dailami were killed by Yemeni forces late September, two were killed in the thwarted suicide attacks and eight are still in the wind including Jabeer Elbanegh and Jamal Badawi. (Read on …)