Armies of Liberation

Reuters: – A gunman opened fire on a U.S. security team as it trained Yemeni soldiers in the south of the country, the Pentagon and a security official said on Friday, both denying reports from an Islamist group that a CIA officer was killed in the assault.

In the north of the country, a bomb blast hit an anti-U.S. protest, injuring at least 22 people, a rebel group that controls much of the region said. (Read on …)

The western media black-out continues:

Clearly for FOX News, news worthiness depends on who is doing the killing; one person killed by al Qaeda vastly outweighs the hundred killed by the Yemeni government in the last week. For a day, CNN ran the headline: Yemeni women burn veils, wow, interesting, at least they mentioned “Yemen,” as the state was simultaneously pounding residences in Taiz with artillery and shelling villages in Arhab with missiles.

And neither one can find for five seconds for this from today, (if its not working try this direct link.)

Fox News: Car Bomb Kills Anti-Terror Chief in South Yemen.

VS.

- Airstrikes on Arhab leave 120 civilians killed, 340 wounded

- Nationwide slaughter since UN SC council resolution 2014

- One million demand regime change

- Yemen Post: Several Million of Yemeni gathered nationwide in the streets of Yemen yesterday, demanding the fall of the regime and Ali Abdullah Saleh’s trial as they say the president is continuing to murder his people.

Protesters had spell out “butcher” across their chest in red ink in denunciation of president Saleh’s many crimes. “He’s using snipers to gun down women and children, Sana’a and Taiz are under shelling attacks everyday…Saleh is killing Yemeni and the World stands silent…We will not,” said Mohamed Hassan Said a defected officer.

In Sana’a, the capital, a funeral march was organized to bury the bodies of the victims of the revolution amongst whom was 4 year-old little Waffa. While carrying the coffins the crowd was chorusing anti-regime slogan, asking the international community to bear witness of the crimes committed against peaceful Yemeni people. (Read on …)

Yemen’s defense minister on Tuesday afternoon survived the attempted bombing, targeting his motorcade during his visit to the military units of the Yemeni army stationed in Western part of the city of Zanzibar, in Abyan province. The blast, which sources said was a mine planted in the minister’s car, targeted the minister and senior military leader, Major General Faisal Rajab 119 and the brigade commander, who announced his support for the protests against the regime of President Saleh of Yemen. al Teef.

The regime later denied the event occurred. For a wrap up of the last weeks, see Critical Threats Gulf of Aden Security Review.

al jazeera reports clashes in al Houta.

Dozens of alleged al-Qaeda gunmen attacked security and government buildings in the southern town of Huta, killing two policeman and wounding five others, Yemeni medics and residents said.

Fierce clashes broke out at dawn on Wednesday between the armed men and police around the local branches of intelligence and central bank, and the courts in the Lahij province town of Huta, before dispersing toward nearby farms, residents said. (Read on …)

Update: 1) UNHCHR 20,000 internally displaced displaced by the fighting. 2) Residents report severe water shortage, roads cut.

original: So I’m the only one who recalls Saleh’s long time stooge Khalidabdul Nabi ( al Nabi background here) and all that blah blah about reviving the Aden Abyan Islamic Army to establish an Islamic Emirate. As recently as 48 hours ago the USG was talking about AQAP in Abyan. Is it shorthand for any jihaddist, a scare tactic or ignorance? The militants in Abyan are historically more likely to be state jihaddists than the Wahishi death cult. Saleh has corrupted everything in Yemen including its jihaddists.

See 12/28/09 “Nabi calls for an Islamist state in Yemen.” Do we recall the January 09 face to face meeting with Saleh and Nabi and others that culminated in the Feb 09 release of the 109 aged members of the Aden Abyan Islamic Army (as the Yemeni embassy described them at the time, making quite clear at the time they were not al Qaeda). For names of the attendees, see here. There was also a large chunk of cash that changed hands at the time. Earlier on Khanfar, Abyan.

DW “Saleh is known for the creative use of chaos as a means of control, and has pitted jihadists against the South before, so it could be a strategy,” Professor Sheila Carapico, a Yemen expert at the University of Richmond and the American University in Cairo, told Deutsche Welle….Yemen’s elite, American-trained counterterrorism units had been engaging AQAP elements in fierce clashes throughout the region in recent months but were pulled out of Abyan just days before the AQAP raid on Zinjibar took place. Reports from Zinjibar claimed that the militants were unopposed and took over the city without a shot being fired, an unusual event given the severity of combat that had taken place between government forces and militants in the preceding weeks.

Local residents in Zinjibar also claim that, far from being hardcore AQAP fighters, the militants were members of the estimated 300-strong Ansar al-Sharia movement, a group of local tribesman committed to setting up a fundamentalist state in the south of Yemen, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Ansar al-Sharia is thought to have no connections with the protestors in the capital Sanaa or the opposition forces battling his troops elsewhere in the country.

Other reporting (Read on …)

The spree continues, Yemen Post

At least three people were killed, including two soldiers and another wounded in Yemen’s southern province of Hadhramout.

Private sources said that suspected Al-Qaeda militants attacked a governmental patrol vehicle at a checkpoint belonging to the Central Security Unit in Mukalla, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding another. (Read on …)

Wired: Also on Friday, another group of suspected terrorists attacked a security checkpoint in the southern province of Shabwa. At least three police officers were killed and another one was injured.

Hindustan Times:
Al-Qaeda militants have kidnapped an intelligence officer today in Yemen’s south while unknown gunmen killed a soldier and a policeman in separate attacks, a security official told AFP. “Masked Al-Qaeda armed men stopped a bus in Loder,” in Abyan province, which has become one of the jihadists’ stronghold, and “abducted a Yemeni intelligence officer named Fadhel Ahmed Mohsen,” said the official. (Read on …)

Its been two days and there’s no independent confirmation that this even happened. Its such a murky country due to the censorship. But if true, the incident also shows that AQAP is continuing its violence in Yemen.

4/7/11 ADEN — Two soldiers kidnapped by tribesmen in southern Yemen were found with their throats slit on Tuesday in the restive province of Abyan, an Al-Qaeda stronghold, a security official said.

The two soldiers were murdered in an Al-Qaeda-style execution, the official said, requesting anonymity.

He said the execution of hostages went against the norms of Yemeni tribes, which often resort to kidnapping as a means of exerting pressure on local authorities, implying Al-Qaeda militants could have been behind the killings.

Local residents told AFP the corpses were found with gunshot and knife wounds on the side of a road outside the unrest-strewn town of Loder.

The two soldiers were kidnapped last Thursday in Loder by tribesmen in retaliation for the Yemeni military’s killing of six suspected Al-Qaeda militants last month.

A security official said on March 26 that army troops killed the six as they attacked an army post in Loder.

Yemeni forces kill 11 al-Qaeda members
[11/April/2011]
ABYAN, April 11 (Saba)- At least 11 al-Qaeda members, including two foreigners, were killed on Monday in a clash with Yemeni forces in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, a security source has said.

The source was quoted by the military-run 26sep.net as saying that al-Qaeda members had attacked a checkpoint at Mudia district in Abyan, killing two Yemeni soldiers and wounding five others.

The source added that a number of al-Qaeda members were also injured in the clash.

Its amazing how little coverage western media is giving developments outside the capital of Yemen, Sanaa. Dynamic developments in Libya are naturally sucking up air time, and all the western reporters are sequestered in Sana’a, a function of both state restrictions and reporters’ hesitance. Saada has been cut off from journalists since 2004. Several Yemeni news sites were blocked and hacked this week including al Msadar and Yemen Online- for reporting the news. Several reporters were beaten and harassed. Two al Jazeera reporters were threatened with expulsion. Today’s protest in Ibb is estimated at 200,000 and there’s new violence in Aden. Other estimates of injuries in Ibb go as high as 70.

Government supporters attack protesters in Yemen, killing 1: CP: SANAA, Yemen — Government supporters wielding knives and handguns attacked protesters in southern Yemen on Sunday, leaving one dead in the latest in weeks of demonstrations demanding the president step down.

In a separate development in the increasingly chaotic Middle Eastern nation, suspected al-Qaida gunmen killed four soldiers from the elite Republican Guard forces in a mountainous region… (Read on …)

South Yemen official escapes ‘Qaeda’ ambush (AFP) , 28 January 2011,
ADEN, Yemen — The children of a senior Yemeni official were wounded when suspected Al-Qaeda militants ambushed his car in the southern province of Abyan, a security official told AFP on Friday.

“Gunmen, whom I think belong to Al-Qaeda, attacked the car of Ahmed Ghaleb Rahawi,” sub-prefect of the town of Jaar and the third-ranking official in the restive province of Abyan, who was not in the vehicle at the time. (Read on …)

Al Ghad reports Lt Col Aklan was targeted last in November when an explosive device planted in his car was disarmed.

People’s Daily: Militants of the al-Qaida wing shot dead a top security official in northeast Yemen, a provincial security official told Xinhua on Sunday.

Lieutenant Colonel Nabil Aklan, deputy director of the investigation unit in the northeastern province of Marib, was gunned down by a group of al-Qaida militants in front of a supermarket, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

“The attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida,” the official said.

These attacks demonstrate the lack of capacity in the military (a function of patronage and nepotism) and portend the difficulties in establishing and securing the proposed four forward operating bases and their supply chains.

Yemen Post: A military commander was injured and one of his guards was killed and three others seriously injured in a suspected Al-Qaeda ambush, the second on Friday targeting military convoys in south Yemen, an official source said. (Read on …)

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 …)

People’s Daily: Al-Qaida militants on Tuesday gunned down a security colonel working at the Yemen LNG company in southern Shabwa province, local official said.

“Gunmen of al-Qaida in Shabwa’s provincial capital city of Ataq intercepted the car of Colonel Ali Thwaba, who is also the security director of foreign oil and gas companies in Yemen LNG company in Balhaf city port, and shot him dead,” the official told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

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 …)

Good, maybe another Saudi will flip and spill. The real al Qaeda don’t surrender unless they already have a deal.

Yemen says 14 al-Qaeda suspects surrender,

AFP: Fourteen suspected al-Qaeda members, including senior figures, have surrendered in the restive southern province of Abyan, Yemen’s defence ministry and a source close to the governor said on Monday.

“Fourteen al-Qaeda members have surrendered to Abyan’s governor Ahmed al-Mayassari,” said the ministry’s website, 26sep.net, citing a security official.

Five of them are leaders of the network’s local branch in Abyan, a source close to Mayassari told AFP.
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Last month, another 15 suspected members of al-Qaeda surrendered to Abyan’s governor.

This one one way back in the hopper, so I’m throwing it here.

AFP
A suspected Al-Qaeda commander in the southern Yemen province of Abyan has surrendered to the authorities after negotiations conducted by tribal leaders, a security official said on Thursday.

“Jamal Ahmed Mairan, leader of Al-Qaeda in Loder and Modia (towns) handed himself in on Wednesday after mediation by tribal authorities,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. (Read on …)

This article from Al Masdar identifies them all as PSO, and there are many groups with a motive to purge the PSO.

The Canadian Press – ONLINE EDITION Yemen: Suspected al-Qaida gunmen kill intelligence officer, latest in assassination campaign. By: Ahmed Al-Haj, The Associated Press

SAN’A, Yemen – Suspected al-Qaida gunmen killed a senior intelligence officer in an eastern Yemeni province on Friday, apparently the latest in a campaign of assassinations by the militant group, security officials said.
(Read on …)

News Yemen: The air forces have carried out new raids on suspected al-Qaeda sites in Thaobah in Modiya of the southern province of Abyan on Tuesday.

Local source told News Yemen that at least four missiles were fired at the area and led to the demolition of a number of houses. The strikes did not result in casualties, said the source. Thaobah is a mountainous area, 20 km from the city of Lawdar.

Journalist Ahmed al-Qane, in Thaobah, told News Yemen that the targeted elements have suddenly gathered in the area after they were expelled earlier by sheikhs and social figures to Al-Majala. The government increased campaign against suspected al-Qaeda militants in Abyan after militants ambushed and killed a security official, brother of Abyan’s governor and tried to assassinate the governor himself.

al Motamar: He added that confrontations by security forces and a number of al-Qaeda elements resulted in killing more than 6 of them in the past days and the capture of the main wanted the terrorist Hani al-Thurayah and found in his possession dangerous documents for al-Qaeda revealing plots on targeting security personalities in Abyan province.

The Saudi view of the al Fayfi surrender. Earlier reporting here including the alert on France. The murderer of the French engineer was a fan of Anwar Awlaki.

JEDDAH: The Ministry of Interior is expected to release details soon of a Saudi on its 2009 list of persons wanted in connection with security issues who has expressed the wish to return from Afghanistan, sources have told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.
The move would reduce the list to 70, following the ministry statement Friday announcing the return of Jabir Bin Jibran Ali Al-Faifi from Yemen.
A Yemeni official told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that security authorities in the Lawdar area of the Abyan province in south Yemen took Al-Faifi into custody on Sep. 9 after he had informed them of his whereabouts with other members of the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and his desire to hand himself in.
The official said that a second member of the organization, Jalal Al-Saidi, handed himself in at the same time in Lawdar, and that the two events happened during a two-week long Yemeni security forces campaign in Ramadan in pursuit of Al-Qaeda members who managed to flee. (Read on …)