Yemen Post The Yemen-based Abaad Centre for Studies and Researches has cautioned that some factions seek to collapse Yemeni cities militarily under the pretext of Al-Qaeda as happened in Radda and Abyan provinces scenarios.
“This scenario may be carried out in Ibb, Dhala’a, Lahj, and, Hadhramout and other cities would be controlled under the pretext of fighting Al-Qaeda as it is expected to happen in Dhamar, Taiz, and Hodeidah.
In a periodic report, Abaad pointed out that Al-Qaeda has no systematic structure and its goals are foggy, affirming that it lacks strategic visions.
“Therefore, Al-Qaeda was penetrated by local and international bodies, and only those bodies take advantages of Al-Qaeda,” added the centre. “Even some figures benefited from Al-Qaeda as that clearly appeared during its control and withdrawal of Al-Amria in Rada when Tariq Al-Dhahab could get his brother out of the custody.”
“There are figures affiliated to Al-Qaeda, some were in Abyan and others who escaped jails, are currently existed in Sana’a, and some Al-Qaeda fugitives live with the displaced people inside schools in Aden.”
The report ruled out that Al-Qaeda has the ability to take over any town, if it does not receive direct and indirect logistic support by some sides that are in connection to the power transfer process.
“Al-Dhahab withdrew from Radda after he failed to recruit enough numbers to completely control the city as well as he got his main demand, release of his bother” the report added.
The periodic report revealed that Al-Dhahab was not the real leader of Al-Qaeda in Radda.
It further cited that Al-Qaeda senior leaders, Nasser Al-Wohaish, the leader of Al-Qaeda, and Ebrahim Darwish, another Al-Qaeda leader were at Alzahir district of Baidha governorate when Radda was taken over.
“Decisions were taken by Al-Qaeda Shura council consisted of 20 persons who are selected of 60 persons, the real division of Al-Qaeda which is called ” Almuhajreen” which includes a Saudi and Pakistani nationals. Their duties were not external protection. Some Bedouins, tribesmen and other escapees joined Al-Qaeda in its fighting with the aim of getting money and others were contained as a result of Al-Dhahab’s charisma in the area.
“While the real leader was not known in Radda, there was a field leader who is called Abu Hamza and another high-ranking leader called “Abu Hamam” , and they were considered the main decion-makers in Radda”
Abaad said that assassination incidents against officers and soldiers of the Political Security and other security services were clear-cut indicators of Al-Qaeda expansion.
“Before Al-Qaeda control on Radda, three of the Political Security officials were killed in Baidah, capital of the governorate, and Al-Qaeda was behind their assassination,” the report added “One of these officers, Ahmed Samba was kidnapped and executed by Al-Qaeda in Abyan,”
“Security services believe that Al-Qaeda was behind killing of approximately 70 security officers including 20 ones affiliated to the Political Security. Most of them were killed in the eastern and Southern governorates in the period from January 2011 to January 2012. This number is 25 percent of all those officers and soldiers killed since the eruption of anti-regime protests.”
The report affirmed that Al-Qaeda used the Yemeni political gap and the power transfer process to strengthen its control, pointing out that Saleh’s regime directly or indirectly contributed in Al-Qaeda control on Abyan and Radda.

“As Al-Qaeda took over Al-Qaeda in Zinjibar in April 2011 and seized control on the Central Security camp without fighting, it was supposed that Major General Adel Al-Masri, nephew of the Interior Ministry, be investigated.
“However, Al-Masri was appointed as a security director of Radda a day after the signature of the GCC-brokered power transfer deal,” the report added.
“After Almasri became the first security official in Rada, Al-Qaeda could seized control Radda at the same way it took over Zinjibar,”
“As a result of Al-Qaeda operations, some regional and international powers would move to Yemen’s territorial water, particularly the United states,”
“Its military move is motivated by presidential elections race, particularly after it achieved victories in Afghanistan and Yemen as well as the success of its covert operations which led to the killing of Bin Laden and Anwar Al-Awlaki,”
“Pentagon said it deployed a large floating base to serve as a “mother ship” for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, but the main goal was the implementation of an agreement with Taliban for which the American forces would leave Afghanistan in return for allowing Al-Qaeda leaders would exit Afghanistan with guarantees of not endangering their lives,”
“Because Iran is interested in getting Americans and Al-Qaeda out Afghanistan, so it would facilitate the mission,” added the report.
“As for the US-Iranian competition at Bab-el-Mandeb strait, particularly after Tehran threatened to close Hormuz strait, the report said that Americans seek to secure Bab-el-Mandeb, and then expand to the east Africa, but they know that Iran’s existence in the African Horn would make them accept share as happened in Afghanistan and Iraq” the report concluded.

It expected that Washington would support Turkey’s efforts to decrease the ceiling of Iran’s demands which start with the United States’ suspension of its support to the Iranian opposition and ends with turning blind eyes to Iran’s repression against Sunnis in Balochistan , Ahwaz and Kurdistan.
It also cited that Washington and Tehran would reach an agreement that put an end to bargaining, pointing out that the Gulf Cooperation Council states would have their roles in the agreement as they are considered the closest partners to the United States.
“Yemen could be included in bargaining and Iran may abandon its influence in the African Horn, Yemen, Syria , Bahrain, particularly if it felt that it is fragile from inside and that its “Guardianship of the Jurist” system faces collapse in conjunction with parliamentary elections and Arab spring revolutions” it added.
The report concluded that bargaining reveals that Al-Qaeda organization is used as a justification for regional and international race to took over region’s resources.

It ultimately called the Yemeni Consensus government to set an emergency plan to deal with Al-Qaeda which includes economic reforms, political openness, debates and dialogues with all Yemeni forces including Al-Qaeda and the Houthi group.
“The government must take into consideration the military and security action as the last solution,” the report said.

Certainly AQAP bears the responsibility for sheltering in populated areas in the first place but people in the al Qaeda occupied territories of Yemen want to know where the refugee camps are. Seriously, where are they supposed to go? And it is a US problem when an al Qaeda presence means the potential of US drone strikes. The 120,000 who fled Zinjibar last May are still in the schools of Aden. I know Yemenis’ rights are very low on Obama’s priority list, but there must be a part of the plan to increase US drone use that will deal with the public panic and mass displacement that will occur as US drones follow AQ from province to province threatening people’s lives and homes. Over 15,000 fled Raada within days of Tariq al Dhahab’s (and al Wahishi’s) appearance. They were escaping both the al Qaeda fanaticism and the threat of US drones.

While the Obama administration may try to maintain the myth in the US that they know exactly who they are hitting, and its always a precise targeting, the non-lethal impact on civilians must be considered as well. The US is playing right into al Qaedas hands with nearly every policy from the re-imposition of a dictatorship through the GCC deal to Saleh’s visit to increased drones. The US is focused on vulnerable land when it should be focused on vulnerable people.

Basically, the US is going to bomb Yemen in order to pull off an uncontested election that nobody wants (except the US, the GPC and Islah elites) in the interest of “stability.” If the expired parliament gave Saleh immunity, it can appoint Hadi. The bogus show election isn’t worth more Yemeni lives or the displacement of tens of thousands, and it certainly wont confer legitimacy when there’s only one candidate that was selected by the US. The most politically disenfranchised are going to boycott anyway: civil minded protesters, southerners and Houthis.

The National: Yemen will increasingly rely on US drone strikes to target Islamist militants threatening to disrupt a transfer of power this month, Yemeni government officials said.

The president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is meant to hand over power to his vice president, Abdurabu Mansur Hadi, on February 22.

The run up to the transfer is being overshadowed by growing protests, including within the military, which have grounded Yemen’s air force across much of the country.

Two aides in Mr Hadi’s office said they expected a rise in drone attacks against Al Qaeda militants.

The strikes will be intensified only if necessary, to ensure that militant groups do not expand in vulnerable areas, said one of the aides. Both asked to remain anonymous.

An early indication of the escalation came on Monday, when at least 11 militants were killed in Yemen’s Abyan province by three separate strikes from drones, according to security officials in the province.

It was one of the biggest such strikes believed to have been carried out by the US in Yemen.

Yemeni officials and western diplomats fear suspected Al Qaeda militants, who control considerable territory in Abyan, may attempt to capitalise on the end of Mr Saleh’s rule.

Months of near civil war to topple Mr Saleh, along with lawlessness and tribal rebellions, have created a vacuum for the militants.

Three weeks ago, they took over the town of Radaa, 173 kilometres south-east of Sanaa, and declared it an Islamic state.

The militants pulled out a few days later after negotiations with tribal chiefs.

Yemen’s military capability to tackle the militants has been hampered by two weeks of protests against the air force chief, said General Mohammed Saleh Al Ahmar, the half-brother of the president.

Abdul Aziz Al Muhayya, the air force’s commander of operations, who joined the protests last week, told The National that air force runways are out of service in the provinces of Aden, Taiz, and partially Sanaa.

“The majority of the air force is out of [the] government’s hands now,” he said.

“Our bases are somewhat handicapped,” a senior Hadi aide said. “We cannot rule out using US drones if needed in an emergency situation when it comes to attacking Al Qaeda hideouts.”

Drone attacks by the US in Yemen require the approval of Washington, the US ambassador in Sanaa, the counterterror office in Yemen, and the green light from Mr Hadi, Yemeni officials said.

The US has repeatedly used drones in Yemen to attack militants from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which the US has said was behind the December 2009 plot to blow up a US airliner as it approached Detroit.

In one of most successful attacks for Washington’s drone programme, a strike in Al Jawf province in September killed Anwar Al Awlaki, the American-born cleric who became a senior figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Mr Saleh was viewed by Washington as an important ally against AQAP and his government usually provided the intelligence for the targets, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal in December.

The US hopes the transfer of power will not affect Yemen’s cooperation in targeting AQAP.

A US embassy official in Sanaa was optimistic that Mr Hadi, as the next president, would be cooperative in the fight against militancy and help build the security relations between all ethnic, tribal and regional groups.

SOHR report Dec 2011

On Monday, December ,5 Sheikh Tawfiq Ali Mansour Juneidi ,nicknamed
“Hawas “the leader of the People’s Committees in the town of Lauder of
Abyan province ,died as a result of wounds sustained by a blast of an
explosive package targeted him on Friday, December ,2 and which also
caused the death of his colleague ,Ali Nasser Houshan .The Web site” ,Taj
South Arabia “reported that the People’s Committees protect the district
from the al-Qaeda operatives ,since it is believe that the al-Qaeda is behind
this assassination….

“Al Qaeda “operatives on the evening of Monday, December , ambushed
two vehicles to target a number of people from Almayaser Tribe from the
Farajs when they were passing in” Ekd “area between the districts of Lauder
and Wadiea .Aden News Agency said that the ambush caused injuries
among three people ,they are :Ahmed Hussein Ashal ,Hussein Ali Ashal and
Ahmed Mohammed al-Ghairi.

Both of the citizens Haaj Obeid and Adel Amari were seriously injured on
Friday, December ,2 by an armed group opened fire on a security leader in
the city of Ghail Bawazir of Hadramout province .The Aden News Agency
said that the unknown gunmen were riding a Hilux car ,passed in front of the
Abu Saba’a Cafe and opened heavy fire on the security leader and those
around him…

The group calling itself” Ansar al-Sharia “,on Saturday, Dec ,31 .fired in the
air to suppress the march of dignity ,which started from Aden province
toward the city of Zanzibar, demanding an end to the war in the city between
the Yemeni army and the group .The march was attended by thousands from
the South ,in particular from Abyan province .The website” ,Sada Aden ”
quoted from Mohammed Ahmed Qais ,the Chairman of the Organizing
Committee of the March of Dignity, that the peaceful march aimed at
demanding the departure of the militants of” Al Qaeda “,as well as the
Yemeni army troops from their city, but the militants of” Ansar Al-Sharia ”
stopped the march in the village of Alkod that is located five kilometers
away from the city of Zinjibar, firing in the air to prevent their progress…

The main road linking the provinces of Aden and Abyan has been closed
since the events of the city of Zinjibar of the incursion of armed elements
“Ansar Al-Sharia “to the neighborhoods until now .There have been several
attempts to open it and to allow travelers to pass through it ,but they all fail
because of the tense military situation between the forces of the Yemeni
army and the armed groups .Following the closure of that road, citizens from
both sides are affected and suffer from traveling from one province as an
alternative way make them spend a lot of time and efforts ,as well as
depriving the citizens of the cities of Zanzibar and Jaar from returning to
their homes which they had abandoned fearing for their lives….

On the morning of Tuesday, December ,6 warplanes flew at low height over
Abyan province ,in the city of Wadiea ,breaking the sound barrier ,and
triggering fear and terror among the children and women.
The Aden News Agency said that the people of the city fear of possible
bombing maybe exposed to innocent civilians, especially of the flights of the
U.S. drones hovering constantly over the cities and villages of the region for
long periods. (The fear comes after)
The U.S. aircraft on December ,2009 17 ,launched several Cruz rockets from
American battleships in the Gulf of Aden to strike Al- Majala village in the
district of Al-Mahfed in Abyan province that killed dozens of innocent
children, women and elders.

Sheikh Khalid al Dhahab said in a later newspaper interview: “the remnants of the Saleh regime facilitated the gunmen to enter the city Radaa and the idea of formation and the establishment of the “solution and the contract” and the requirement by the “supporters of sharia law” to change the heads of districts and directors of offices services in the city of Radaa is to legitimize the rule of al-Qaeda through the establishment of Islamic emirate in Radaa, and remnants of the Saleh regime seek to make Radaa Islamic emirate.”

al Tagheer, link

Yemen Post: Three tribesmen were killed and several others were wounded on Saturday as Al-Qaeda militants attacked the house of a well-known witch-doctor in Rada’a of Baidha governorate.

The militants led by Tariq Al-Dhahab tried to arrest Hassan Alawbali that AlQaeda sees his exercises of witchcraft and sorcery as forbidden by Sharia, but he was not existed inside the home.

Local sources said that the militants came to Alawbali’s house on military vehicles that they had seized during their takeover of government facilities of Rada’a last week.

They further said that followers of Alawbali responded to the attack, killing two Al-Qaeda militants.

Meanwhile, local sources allege that Adel Almasri, security official and son of the former interior minister, Mutahar Almasri, coordinates with Al-Qaeda to surrender other areas of Baidha.

They pointed out that Almasri had colluded with armed groups in Abyan and help them capture a camp months ago.

Tribal leaders went to Almasri and asked him about news reports of his intention to plans to surrender others areas to the militants, but he denied that, affirming that he only withdrew from Abyan camp after all his soldiers left him alone.

Al-Qaeda militants are currently positioning inside an ancient citadel, a location of the Central Security and other government facilitates.

Sources said that deputy governor of Baidha, Mohammad Almansori, seeks to mediate between the militants and other tribesmen to persuade them leave the town.

However, locals accuse him of complicity with the militants, pointing out that he urges them to stay inside the town.

News reports stated that the US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein informed the Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakar Al-Qairbi last Wednesday that Yemen’s security forces cooperated with Al-Qaeda to capture Rada’a.

Critics of Saleh allege that he uses Al-Qaeda to blackmail and intimidate the neighboring GCC states and other western countries, pointing out that security services that are still loyal to Saleh were responsible for insecurity in Rada’a.

I’m so sick of these lunatics.

Yemen Observer: The armed group of al-Qaeda militants, who seized the southern town of Rada’a earlier this week , demanded that 15 of the militants currently jailed in the capital, Sana’a before they could withdraw, mediators told Yemen Observer. Sheikh Ali al-Tairi, who is leading mediation efforts along with other leaders in the town, said the mediation team refused the militant’s request.

Al-Tairi said that they had however accepted Tariq al-Dhahab’s request to free his brother. Al-Dhahab’s brother, Nabil, is said to be detained in Sana’a after being repatriated by Syrian authority to Yemen. Al-Tairi said that the militant leader’s older brother, Hizam Al-Dhahab, arrived in Radda on Thursday and warned his brother, Tariq, to leave saying that violence would be used against him.

Locals and Radda government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the militants freed two key prisoners among the 200 people imprisoned, most of whom had been convicted of murder.

“The two key prisoners were convicted of killing a man militants accused of being a witch.” Some 500 militants descended upon the southern town on Saturday, aided by dozens of armed fighters from neighboring Abyan, officials said.

The province of Abyan is a well-known hotbed for al-Qaeda. Abduraqeeb Qasim, a former official of Rada, said: “They [militants] headed towards the city’s offices and besieged state officials.

Before this incident no one ever heard of al-Qaeda in the region or of Tariq Al-Dhahab.” They took a citadel overlooking the town of around 60,000 and a nearby mosque in which the militant leader delivered a speech and declared the town an Islamic emirate.

“There has been a popular discontent by the town dignitaries at the militant takeover,” said Qasim, the former prosecution official who said the town leaders had now given the militants a deadline to leave the town. A military reinforcement is heading toward Rada amid failure from tribal leaders to force the militants out.

The Yemen-based al-Qaeda group, known as Ansar al Sharia, has posed a threat to the US administration by targeting key US targets, also threatening number one top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. Since a breakdown in security and a power vacuum, the group has boldly expanded its territories trying to destabilize the Yemeni government.

YPost: Tribal chieftains in the southeast province of Al-Baytha, some 260km southeast of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, gave on Wednesday 24 hours for al-Qaeda militants to leave their town of Rada.

Earlier the day, local tribal dignitaries accused outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of conniving with the terrorists and letting Rada falls into their control, as the army looked on militants with simple weapons take control of an entire town.

The militants took control of al-Baytaha’s main town of Rada on Monday, with the army looking on.

Pressed form international community, Saleh signed a peace deal which would see him out of power in less than a month. But he is well-known for his adept political maneuvers and his ability to play tribes off each other as long as it’s in his favor.

Apparently, Saleh still believes he could somehow cling to power by playing his old-worn tricks.

Although the Saleh regime has often deployed AQAP as mercenaries to achieve political ends, the group retains its goals of imposing its violent, supremacist ideology in Yemen and attacking the US and other western nations.

Yemen Post: Yemen’s Islamist Islah Party and President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People Congress traded accusations on Tuesday as to who helped al-Qaeda militants take full control of a town southeast Yemen.

Islah official website al-Sahwaa quoted a dignitary source in the a new l-Qaeda-held town of Rada, some 260km southeast the capital Sana’a, as saying;” seizing control of Rada has been achieved in coordination with National Security Unit,whose commander is Saleh’s nephew Amar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh.

On the other hand, GPC held the ministry of interior led by an opposition figure responsible for what happened in Rada.

Militants believed to belong to Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch have taken full control of Rada on Monday, leaving a soldier killed and another injured.

Boston Globe: The officials said the Al Qaeda fighters were led by Tariq Al-Zahab, a Yemeni whose sister was married to US-born Al Qaeda cleric and key recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, killed in a US airstrike last September.

Awlaki issued English-language sermons on jihad on the Internet from his hideouts in Yemen’s mountains, drawing Muslim recruits like the young Nigerian who tried to bring down a US jet at Christmas 2009 and the Pakistani-American behind the botched car bombing in Times Square in May 2010.

The fighters later threw up a security ring around the town, preventing residents from leaving or entering, and killed two soldiers and wounded a third in clashes with troops. They also seized weapons and vehicles from the security headquarters.

Later yesterday, clashes erupted between the Al Qaeda militants and armed tribesmen, leaving one dead and two wounded, according to a member of Al Qayfa tribe, which took part in the clashes.

Yesterday’s violence prompted stores and schools in Radda to close. Thousands demonstrated in the provincial capital of Bayda to protest the perceived failure of security forces to protect the town, which has a population of about 40,000.

The opposition accused Saleh, who is to step down this month in line with a power transfer deal, of allowing the militants to overrun Radda along with two other towns in southern Abyan province captured previously – Zinjibar and Jaar – to bolster his claims that he must remain in power to secure the country against the rising power of Islamist militants.

Some tribal leaders also accused Saleh of giving the green light to the militants to overrun the city.

Update: Apparently Nabil is still in Yemeni jail after his return by Syria and Tariq will leave Raada if Nabil is freed. The GPC and Syrian Baathists are quite close. Its amazing the way the tribal sheikhs turned them around in a day, unlike in Abyan where there is a different social structure, more broadly clans than tribes.

Reuters: SANAA (Reuters) – Yemeni Islamist fighters who seized a small town southeast of the capital Sanaa this week have said they will withdraw if several comrades are released from jail, tribal sources said on Wednesday.

Yemeni tribesmen negotiating with the militants on behalf of the government said Tareq al-Dahab, leader of the group that took over Radda about 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Sanaa, agreed to go if his brother Nabil and several others were freed.

The latest news on Gitmo detainee Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, in US custody since 2002, is that the Military Commission can not confirmthat he will be released if found not guilty. Its not in the Military Commission’s jurisdiction to make those kind of pledges. Considering Nashiri was water boarded, its questionable if any of his statements will be allowed at trial, but prosecutors are confident that there is enough other evidence for a conviction.

Al Nashiri is charged with aiding the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in Aden port in 2000. The bombing killed 17 US service members and severely wounded dozens more. Al Nashiri selected the targets, the timing and coordinated the operatives. However, unexplored for a decade is the level of complicity by top Yemeni government officials and the failure of US intelligence to get a warning to the ship.

Prior to the attack on the USS Cole, Yemen’s then Interior Minister Hussain Arab issued al Nashiri a travel pass that enabled him to pass Yemen’s many internal checkpoints without search or question in the months preceding the terror attack. Al Nashiri also had a weapons permit issued by the Interior Ministry. These official documents were presented in Yemeni court during the 2005 trials of other conspirators.

In an interesting coincidence, Yemeni President Saleh ordered several top officials, including Interior Minister Arab, to travel from the capital Sana’a to Aden the night before the USS Cole was bombed there.

Saleh denied that Yemen was notified of the impending arrival of the warship. According to Centcom commander, General Zinni, in Congressional testimony, US naval officials followed the standard procedures for refueling including a two week advance notification to the host port.

It was also around two weeks prior to the attack that the military data mining group Able Danger and separately DOD analyst Kie Fallis picked up intel streams about an impending attack. Both made several attempts to obtain authorization to issue official warnings to no avail.

Kie Fallis quit the day of the Cole bombing. Able Danger’s Anthony Shaffer’s information never made it into the 9/11 report, although he tried. DOD later revoked Shaffer’s health insurance and forced him out over a “stolen” pen that he reported taking as a souvenir as a teen.

The NSA had the “Yemen hub” (a phone line in Yemen used by al Qaeda operatives for calls to and from bin Laden and others) under heavy surveillance for over a year prior to the Cole bombing, and for about a year after. There was a satellite trained on the house in Sanaa 24/7. Oddly, the NSA never learned of or reported on the USS Cole plot.

The CIA withheld information from the FBI about an al Qaeda summit, a high level meeting in Malaysia in January 2000, at which both the Cole and 9/11 were discussed. (See former federal investigator Ali Soufan’s excellent book, The Black Banners for more.)

Yemeni officials failed to cooperate with Soufan and other FBI agents in Yemen investigating the bombing. Some like the head of Yemen’s Political Security Organization in Aden, Hussain al Ansi, engaged in active misdirection and stonewalling.

Ten terrorists awaiting trial for the Cole attack escaped Yemeni prison in 2002 and after surrendering, their trials resulted in sentences of five to ten years. Most of escaped prison again in 2006. By 2008, all those convicted in the attack had their sentences commuted and were free. Al Nashiri, in US custody, was sentenced to death in Yemen in absencia in 2005.

The Jurist reports the Yemeni government sheltered (and lied for) al Nashiri after the bombing. The Congressional Research Service details the Cole bombers’ releases and notes that, according to the Washington Post, Al Nashiri had spent several months before his capture under “high-level protection” by the Yemeni government.

After the USS Cole attack, Interior Minister Arab was transferred, appointed by Yemeni President Saleh to the Shura Council. Arab resigned and joined the Pro-Revolutionary Military Council in March 2011.

Previous: (2007) The USS Cole Bombing in Yemen: What We Know Today

Related: Defense argues US was not at war in 2000, thus the Military Commission does not have jurisdiction.

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.

And in spite of the anger and the sorrow which is crushing hearts, Yemen went on chanting: “Peaceful, peaceful”.

As the day advanced in “Change Square”, the sounds of explosions could be heard in the background, coming from Hasaba and other northern districts of the capital, as Sofan, al Dari and al Sahwan have become the new targets of choice of the government forces.

In Hayel Street, protesters reported that a woman, Kafaya al-Hamoodi was killed by a sniper as she was walking pass. Her body was taken to the University’s makeshift hospital for protection and identification as protesters fear further body-abduction from the regime, for they say Saleh is trying to pass their victims for his.

In Taiz, the other main flashpoint of the revolution, tens of thousands of protesters defied the regime and its shelling and killing campaign as they descended upon the streets of the city, screaming their anger.
Despite the presence in Sana’a, of diplomats from the UN and the GCC, the regime attacked n broad day light its citizens, launching its forces against peaceful protesters.

As a result a reported 10 people were wounded, 5 in critical conditions. Dozens more were severely beaten up by thugs loyal to the regime.
In Ibb and Hodeidah, unprecedented numbers were recorded said the marches’ organizers as Imams loyal to the revolution are continuing to call on Yemeni to join “their brothers”.

Yemenat: New enhancements to the supporters of al-Qaeda in Abyan

According to local sources in the city of Jaar, in Abyan province, south of Yemen, the city witnessed the arrival of new fighters and additional military reinforcements to support the armed groups that are believed to belong to al Qaeda.

The sources pointed out that the military buildup, which includes a large number of fighters who are nationals of various Asian, African and combat equipment, and arrived to the province of Abyan by sea in the coastal city of Shakra, which is still controlled by armed elements in their hands since the fall several months ago.

The same sources that were distributed to combatants and military equipment on many areas of the province of Abyan to support the armed groups that have controlled it since the fall with their hands in late May / May last in its war against the military units of the Yemeni army, which fell to the evacuated a large number of dead and wounded in among the parties to the conflict and civilians, and caused the displacement of more than one hundred thousand people to the provinces of Aden and the pilgrimage and safe districts in the province of Abyan.

The city of Zanzibar and its suburbs have seen on Saturday night of fierce battles between the army and armed groups during which a number of sites for the artillery groups, which led to the killing and wounding a number of their fighters.

Source: “The Gulf”

Car bomb kills CT chief in Aden

Yemen Security Brief

A Yemeni security official reported that a car bomb killed the head of the anti-terrorism police force for Abyan governorate, Ali al Hajji, in Aden. The bomb blast also wounded three others.[1]

European Union (EU) Ambassador to Yemen, Michele Cervone d’Urso, met with Yemeni Vice President Abdul Rab Mansour al Hadi, in Sana’a, on Wednesday to discuss the conflict there. D’Urso stressed the eagerness of EU ministers to ending the conflict quickly adding, “Twenty four million Yemenis cannot wait indefinitely for an end to the crisis by a comprehensive national consensus.” Hadi responded with saying that the only way to ending the conflict is through dialogue in order “to reach a national solution” that is based on the guidelines set forth by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative and in agreement with the standards set forth by the international community. Hadi also said that military force is not a solution to ending the conflict and that it will only aggravate the crisis.[2]

Yemen Post According to the al-Awlaki family back in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, Abdul rahman al-Awlaki, the cleric’s son would have run away from home after news of his father’s death in a desperate bid to find him. The 17 year-old was killed subsequently in an American air raid this Friday. Outraged, his family is now speaking out against what they call a murder.

The family’s statements to the WaPo is here. His family says he ran away from home and was having a picnic when the drone hit. However what he was doing with known terrorist Ibrahim al Banaa and Fahd al Quso’s brother is unknown and not raised in the article.

Related: I posted this below but it belongs in a drone-related post: Marib Press Tribes in Marib issued a statement saying Sheikh Saleh al Taaman was killed in the air rad with Ibrahim al Banaa but not reported killed by the regime. The Sheikh was connected to the state’s security policy and paid by Ghalib al Qamish (PSO) 100K YR/month; tribesmen accuse the regime of the manipulating the terror file and US CT ops to retain power. They say the Sheikh was not listed among the dead and that’s reason to ignore the regime’s fatality lists.