Armies of Liberation

GAN: Yemen (Sanaa) – Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arab Peninsula said Saturday it was responsible for some 50 operations carried out in different parts of Yemen in the last five months of last year. (Read on …)

Convicted USS Cole bomber, Fahd al Quso, who is on the FBIs MWT list as well as the UNs 1267 listing, dispels reports of his death with an interview with a Yemeni journalist, Arafat Mudabish, for Asharq al-Awsat in Yemen’s Shabwa province. Al Quso was previously reported killed in Pakistan in September 2010. Al Quso, wearing the brown scarf, expressed surprise at reports of his death, noting he is better off in Yemen than Pakistan. A write up here at Nasher News:

He was surprised by “rumors” of his death, and also surprised by the reports of its presence in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. He added “On the contrary I was in Yemen better under crisis situations with the Yemeni government.”

Al Quso did not deny or confirm the existence of the camps of Al Qaeda in the mountains of Shabwa which is protected by the tribes there, but he said that the shelling of his ranch in the area in December of last year, killing five people and destroying farm. (ed-This is was a US air strike, per Wikileaks.)

He criticized the Yemeni government Bowl, and said that it inflated the size of an al Qaeda presence in Yemen in order to “justify the killing of innocent people in the bombing, which occurs in some areas.”

Fahd al Quo stressed that he had received offers from the Yemeni government which invited him to surrender himself in exchange for guarantees and promises did not talk about details.

Asharq Alawasat article below:
(Read on …)

Maybe he’s in Aden at his mum’s house building a bomb in the kitchen, (just random speculation). Fahd was convicted in the USS Cole bombing and granted early release in 2007.

Yemen Observer: Al-Quso is believed to be hiding in the al-Said district of Shabwa, close to the Abyan province border according to Major Mansoor Hadi, security director of the Mayfa district of Shabwa. However, the major was unsure if this location was accurate.

Ahmed Salim abdul Salam, one of ‘Al al-Abdullah bin Dahah Sheikhs in Wadi Rafadh, al-Quso’s hometown, was unaware of his whereabouts.

“He’s not here. They released news about his death and we’re not sure whether he is alive or dead,” said the Sheikh. He also stated that al-Quso, along with Qasim al-Raymi, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, and Said al-Shihri lived in Wadi Rafadh for a period of time following al-Quso’s release in 2007.

“American drones flew over us yesterday and earlier today,” said the Sheikh when asked if he believed that US forces were actively engaged in searching for al-Quso.

Break my heart. He was supposed to be dead in Pakistan. What was that all about?

After the first car bombing, Abdelmalik made a strong statement that they would not be dragged into a sectarian conflict that artificially pits Zaidis against Sunnis in Yemen. And it makes no sense to frame it that way. AQAP vs. the Houthis, yes. Sunni vs. Shia, no. At Al Mempar Yahya al Houthis criticizes (the IRIN news site of) the United Nations for framing the conflict in Saada as sectarian. He explains

1) the commonality between the Zaids and the four Sunni Schools of Yemen but Wahabbis working for Saudi Arabian intelligence and interests are another story. 2) the checkpoints (as I noted) were there from the inception of the Saada Wars and are not a sign of sectarian strife. Everybody has checkpoints through out Yemen including various tribes as well as bandits. 3) he calls for an apology from the UN although IRIN newsite is a news site not an UN press releases. The offending article at IRIN is here.

On any day, the Houthis are more credible than al Qaeda. But if al Qaeda killed Badr al Din al Houthi, a widely respected scholar by many Yemenis, then Abdelmalik al Houthi–who already defeated two national armies–is going to decimate AQAP or at least entirely expel them from Saada and the surrounding regions under his control. Regardless of what anyone thinks of their goals or ideology, there is no denying the Houthis have already won (by not losing) against two national armies and well stocked air forces. They held out for six years and six wars and Operation Scorched Earth. The Houthis inflicted substantial defeats against the military forces of Ali Mohsen al Ahmar including capturing important territory, large amounts of weapons and numbers of soldiers. Why AQAP would think its strategically a good move now to declare war on the Houthis is a mystery. One explanation is somebody is trying to reignite the war, and AQAP is the last card in the deck. The twist is now both groups are calling each other American agents. But as is very clear by now, the Houthis are not beholden to any foreign power and are not mercenaries-for-hire like AQAP.

Hindustan Times: Al-Qaeda said on Friday the aging spiritual guide of northern Yemen’s Shiite rebels was among those killed in a suicide bombing in November, dismissing accounts that Badreddin al-Huthi died of natural causes. Huthi was among the dead on November 24 when Al-Qaeda bomber Abu Aisha al-Sanaani al-Hashemi struck a Shiite procession in Al-Jawf, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in a statement on an Islamist website.

The rebels, observing an uneasy truce with Sanaa since February, said a suicide car bombing killed 23 fighters or backers at the religious procession, but that Huthi, an asthma sufferer, died a natural death a day later. (Read on …)

I don’t know about this, it depends on which website and other variables.

WaPo: Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing killing Shiite tribesmen in northern Yemen. In a statement appearing Sunday on extremist websites, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula described the Shiites as “despicable plants” to be uprooted, according to the SITE Intelligence Unit, which monitors such sites.

In this case, the only thing that would be worse than a false flag attack (al Qaeda as a deniable proxy) is a real attack, but AQAP is insane if they think they can win against the Houthis. The targeting of the al Ghadeer procession and the convoy en route to Badr al Din’s funeral, beyond being horrific, is also insulting on a deep level and in a personal way to Abdel Malik. And the Houthis would be at a tactical disadvantage if they face continued attacks in that they don’t target civilians, and they won’t retaliate in kind, but that may be a strong strategic advantage. This makes no sense on AQAP’s part to open up a new front now. Maybe the Houthi control of some areas of Saada and al Jawf is diminishing AQAP’s capacity, especially with their operational focus on Saudi Arabia and cross border business enterprises.

Reuters:Nov 28 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s regional wing has claimed responsibility for a car bombing that killed at least 23 Shi’ites in northern Yemen and threatened more attacks, according to a statement posted on the Internet on Sunday. “The mujahideen … decided to begin with this martyrdom-seeking operation in defence of the honour of our Prophet Mohammad … and in defence of our Sunni brothers,” Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in the statement posted on Islamic websites….The al Qaeda statement, dated Nov. 25, said the group had formed special units to attack the Shi’ite rebels, whom it accused of killing Sunnis, destroying their homes and forcing them out of areas under rebel control.

Update: well its the same stationary as the AQAP letter setting the timeline for the release of Hussain al Tais…

al Masdar Online: Announced what is known as al-Qaeda in the Arab fault responsibility for a suicide attack targeting Shi’ite al-Jawf province in northern Yemen last Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding others. (Read on …)

Al Qaeda in Yemen released their third English “magazine”, Inspire, a month early, eager to explain the UPS plot “Operation Hemorrhage.” I think all the talk about small targets, cheep plots and lone wolves could be a diversion for a substantial plot by another Yemeni cell. Either way, according to their own statements, AQAP clearly has no regard whatsoever for the negative impact of their actions on Yemenis. They talk about disrupting the western economy, but they also destroyed Yemen’s economy without apology. They also continue to insist random murder (of Yemenis and Westerners) is correct according to Islam: “Obama stood in front of the world with a terrified face announcing that his nation is being threatened by terrorism (i.e. real Islam)…” That’s how they said it, terrorism is the real Islam.

Related: Samir under Anwar, not a pretty visual: (Read on …)

Al-Qaeda Says Aden-Abyan Army Underway to Liberate Yemen from Crusaders

Yemen Post: Al-Qaeda has announced in a videotape posted on an Islamic website it is creating the Aden-Abyan army to liberate Yemen from crusaders and their apostate agents.
The military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP Qasim Al-Raimi said: “We preach the Muslim nation all over the world that we are on the verge of building the first blocks of the army, which would be the line of defense of the nation, its religion and seek the liberation of its sanctities and clearing its territories of the crusaders and their apostate agents.” (Read on …)

This guy is single handedly doing more damage to Yemen than even the most corrupt minister. He should shut the hell up or go live on a boat in the middle of the ocean where he is not wreaking havoc on all those people around him and in Yemen. Update: “Its us or its you.”??? He sounds like George Bush with the line, “You’re with us or against us.”

Straits Times: SANAA – US-YEMENI radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi has called for the killing of Americans ‘without hesitation,’ in a video message posted on jihadist websites, US monitoring group SITE said on Monday.

‘Do not consult anyone in killing Americans,’ Awlaqi said in the 23-minute video, according to SITE. ‘Killing the devil does not need any fatwa (religious edict),’ he added. ‘It’s either us or you,’ Awlaqi said, addressing Americans in the video which first surfaced on Oct 23 when one minute of footage was posted on jihadist forums.

Kill everybody, that’s his brilliant solution to the world’s issues. He’s not a scholar but he plays one on the internet.

BBC A radical US-born Yemeni Islamist cleric has called for the killing of Americans in a new video message posted on radical web sites. Anwar al-Awlaki said no permission was needed to kill Americans as they are from the “party of devils”. It comes shortly after authorities intercepted air cargo bombs sent from Yemen to the US in a plot linked to Mr Awlaki. (Read on …)

From the second issue of Inspire via Aaron:

Image of Chicago skyline. Inspire was released was released October 10 or 11, surprisingly not on the 10th anniversary of the USS Cole bombing but a day before.

This must mean that Hussain al Taiz is still in custody. Earlier reporting here. If Ammar al Waeli is in Abu Jabarah, along with other top level terrorists, why doesn’t the military launch a raid on the training camp? Oh wait, the military subcontracts their services on a regular basis.

Al Tagheer: قال مصدر أمني بمحافظة صعدة اليمنية ، فضل عدم ذكر اسمه لـ ” التغيير ” ، اليوم الاثنين ، إنه قلق بشان تردد أنباء عن اعتزام عناصر القاعدة تنفيذ حكم الإعدام بحق العقيد علي محمد الحسام نائب مدير الأمن السياسي الذي يعاني من وضع صحي حرج ، خلال الـ 24 ساعة القادمة . A security source said the Yemeni province of Saada, who preferred anonymity for “change”, on Monday, he was concerned about the reports about Al-Qaeda’s intention to implement the death sentence against Colonel Ali Hussam Mohammed, deputy director of political security, who is suffering from critical health status, during the 24 the next hour. (Read on …)

It sounds like it a new training publication, a guide for students, like the two mags they have already aren’t enough. So if its AAIA, is it coming from al Nabi or al Wahishi, joking joking. Al Reimi is trying to rebrand AQAP as an embodiment of a prophecy, but he’s on the wrong side of destiny.

Update: yes its looking to be an instruction manual, based on the author.

5/24/10: Mutairi, who uses the nom de guerre of Abdallah al-Haj, was released from prison in Kuwait in 2007..The documents from the Yemeni rebels indicated that Mutairi, who since his release from prison in 2007 has become one of the top Al-Qaida figures in the Arabian peninsula, has asked a group called the Abdullah Azzam Brigades to assist Al-Qaida in Gaza because “they are fighting against the same enemy.” — Mutairi recently finished writing a detailed document in which he sets out the strategy that should be adopted against Israel and calls for a “missile campaign” from Gaza in order to stir Hamas out of its stupor and fight Israel.

Sounds like he is going to issue a new strategy document for AQAP.

Abu al Feida, Rasheed Mohammed Saed, is an al Qaeda expert because he is a friend of bin Laden

Mareb Press:

تساءل الدكتور عبدالله الزرقة في ورقة قدمها في ندوة أقامها منتدى إب الثقافي بمدينة إب، عن المنهجية التي يتبعها التنظيم و الايدولوجية التي ينطلق منها، معتبرا ما يقوم به التنظيم من استهداف لرجال الدولة امر لا يمت للاسلام بصلة. Asked Dr Abdullah blue in a paper presented at a symposium hosted by Forum Eb Eb cultural city, on the methodology followed by the organization and ideology from which, considering what the organization of the targeting of statesmen is not related with Islam. (Read on …)

On October 18, Saudi Arabia confirmed that they issued a warning to French authorities about an impending attack by the Yemeni al Qaeda branch. The alert was issued following the surrender of Saudi AQAP operative Jabir al Fayfi from Yemen. The irony of bin Laden defending woman’s rights is mind boggling.

CNN: A man purporting to be Osama Bin Laden warned France to get its troops out of Afghanistan and not to oppress Muslims at home in a tape broadcast by the Al-Jazeera network Wednesday.

“If you want to oppress us and thought that it was your right to ban the free women to wear the burqa, isn’t it our right to expel your occupying forces, your men from our lands?” the speaker demands, in reference to recently passed French legislation barring women from covering their faces in public. (Read on …)

Their new plan– to bore us all to death, although the jihaddi paparazzi always gets pretty excited. Adam Gadhan’s 46 minutes snoozer of a video was released yesterday. Today its Anwar, al Qaeda’s Paris Hilton. Last week it was Inspire. Then there was Qasim al Reimi’s audio, rebranding AQAP as a 12,000 man Aden Abyan Islamic Army, which I assure you exists only in his qat addled head. At least now we know what they are scared of–the Mardin Declaration: The scholars meeting in Mardin issued what they dubbed as “The New Mardin Declaration” in which they declared the fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah unsuitable for our times and should not be used by “extremists to justify violence”. Those are educated Islamic scholars and trained recognized clerics. Adam Gadhan and Anwar Awlaki are neither clerics nor scholars, just megalomaniac psychotic weasels.

Update: One and a half minutes? Not produced by al Malahim? hmmmm…. Where’s your webmaster Anwar? Xinhuanet: “The responsibility lying on the shoulder of the Muslim nation is heavy. The nation needs to be guided under dark circumstances in which the Muslims are exposed to fateful dangers,” Awlaki said in a message criticizing what he dubbed “the Yemeni corrupt religious scholars who are run by the government or political opposition parties.” The one and a half minutes video was not produced by Al-Malahim Foundation, the official media arm of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

CNN Yemeni-American cleric and militant Anwar al-Awlaki appeared in a new video message Saturday, saying that Islam is in “severe need for guidance in these dark situations” and that the religion is “exposed to fateful dangers.”

In the limited portion of the video that was immediately available to CNN, al-Awlaki called on Muslim scholars to help address the situation.

Unsurprisingly, Saed al Shihri’s wife is unhappy in Yemen after her earlier exodus from Saudi Arabia. I wonder if AQAP is teaching Samir Khan to dance for them like the Talaban’s Afghan boys .

Belaquood Man’s wife, the second at the base of the Arabian Peninsula: I live and my children like prisoners in Yemen
Tuesday, October 12 – October 2010 at 17:00 / unrestricted net – rebounds
(Read on …)

Is the Ibrahim al Banna on page 23 who graduated from al Azhar in Cairo the same as this Egyptian Ibrahim al Banna with 11 names who was charged in August 2010. More on him here.

Best comment: If he’s hanging out with AQAP, he needs to change his name to Samantha.

AFP: ADEN, Yemen — A Yemeni intelligence officer has been killed and two policemen and a detained suspect wounded in separate attacks in the south, military and security sources said on Saturday.

Abdul Aziz Abdullah Bashraheel was shot dead on Friday by two masked gunmen on a motorcycle in Foha, west of Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province, a security official said. (Read on …)

But nothing on Fahd. Update: One in Afghanistan. Gulf News: Sa’ad Mohammad Al Shahri, a suspected terrorist and associate of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was killed in a US air strike a few days ago in Afghanistan, security sources have said. Gulf News has learnt that Al Shahri was an active Al Qaida militant who featured on a list of wanted terrorists that was issued by the Saudi Interior Ministry on June 28, 2006. Its not AQAP’s Saed al Shehri. Update 2: And apparently they tried to down Saudi Prince Naif’s plane when it was landing in Sana’a in 2009.

al Ghad: Fought battles of the “Tora Bora” and returned from the “Guantanamo” and was killed in a U.S. raid
الإثنين , 4 أكتوبر 2010 م Monday, October 4, 2010

الغد: محمد الأحمدي Tomorrow: Mohammed al-Ahmadi
في سياق إصداراته الإعلامية المتوالية، كشف ما بات يعرف بـ”تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في In the context of successive publications media, reveal what has become known as “Al Qaeda in جزيرة العرب”، أخيراً، عن تفاصيل جديدة لأحد عناصره العائدين من “جوانتانامو”، يدعى “هاني عبده مصلح شعلان”، قتل في غارة يعتقد أنها أميركية يمنية مشتركة استهدفت مواقع للتنظيم بمنطقة أرحب شمال العاصمة صنعاء في ديسمبر الماضي. The Arabian Peninsula, “Finally, new details of one of its elements returning from the” Guantanamo “, named” Hani Abdu Musleh Shaalan, “was killed in the raid are believed to be a joint Yemeni-American targeted sites of the organization welcome area north of the capital Sana’a last December. (Read on …)

Khalidabdul Nabi denies the reports published that he entered into another deal with the Saleh regime to calm the situation in Abyan before the Gulf 20 games. He says his band is not behind the attacks on the Political Security officers in Abyan. The perpetrators are likely tribal, partisan or the state, he says, but he’s not sure which. The name of his group, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, is from the Koran and no one should take offense.

A better translation of the last part thanks to Jassim Mohammed, and yes, they are all intelligence officers: “Over the years, sharp differences emerged between him and the intelligence services in the province and shows those differences and reaffirmed the continuation of these differences because of the state « The state took his money and overturned all agreement of promises with him». Its good to mention that abd Al- Nabi and big numbers who had been in Afghanstan are now officers in Intelligence and currently occupy high positions and as managers have been deployed in the provinces of Lehej and Abyan.”

aha, Asharq al Awasat

Sanaa, Asharq Al-Awsat- Sheikh Khalid Abdul-Nabi, A prominent Yemeni jihadist leader and head of the banned Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, has denied any connection to the assassinations that have been taking place for the last three months in Abyan Governorate, in southern Yemen, which has targeted officers of the Political Security Agency (intelligence) and other security men.

In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Abdul-Nabi said that these assassinations are “illogical” and that he does not specifically know the party or parties behind them. He added that these assassinations were “probably tribal or partisan vendetta. I do not know whether the Southern Mobility Movement [SMM] or the state was behind these assassinations.” (Read on …)