Armies of Liberation

Who bombed the camp? From al Masdar, take your pick
- the revolutionary military
- soldiers who were unpaid and began protesting last week
- the regime did it itself to blame the opposition

Yahya Saleh holds key roles in Yemen. He is head of the huge and thoroughly corrupt al Maz corp as well as a main Counter-Terror liaison to the US and commander of one of the CT units. He is also commander of the Central Security which has been killing protesters all across the country. Yahya is President Saleh’s nephew and ex-son in law and the head of several civil society organizations including one focused on tourism and the Kannan (sp?) Org, dedicated to financially and morally supporting several “resistance” movements abroad. Yahya opened a mourning tent upon the death of Saddam Hussain and is thought close to several top Baathists exiles in Sanaa who coordinated attacks on US troops from Yemen. Yahya openly praised the Iraqi resistance for causing the deaths of many US troops at a seminar at Sanaa Univ which provided a platform for several of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist facilitators.

MasdarOnline: A violent explosion rocked the Central Security Camp Building on Tuesday evening, located in 70th Street near Presidential Palace, south of Sana’a.

A security source confirmed that the explosion took place inside the headquarters of the Central Security camp without causing any casualties among the soldiers. The source attributed the cause of the explosion was a missile that fell on the ground of the camp that was free of any occurrence of soldiers.

No clear circumstances or any additional information was immediately released about the incident, but sources opposing accused “the remnants of the regime” and said that they aim to say that “Central Security troops are exposed to attacks”.

Soldiers in the Central Security camp, which is led by Saleh’s nephew, Brigadier General, Yahya Mohammed Saleh has declared rebellion inside the camp last Ramadan, protesting against the lack of salary, which made them chant slogans calling to overthrow the regime.

Lightly armed tribal fighters seize 40 tanks from the “elite” RG. The protesters will throw Saleh out again if that’s what it takes, but the idea bringing him and his relatives to trial in Yemen is really starting to fill the imagination. And Saleh lied in a speech about being willing to transfer power but he literally hasn’t told the truth in a decade, so its not worth posting or even reading. (The Regime’s social media strategy: lie, liable and infiltrate

VOA Forces loyal to a Yemeni tribal leader have captured a presidential guard base north of the capital Sana’a, as forces loyal to President Ali Abdallah Saleh appear to be suffering a slow erosion. (Read on …)

Of course Saleh is paying al Qaeda and has been paying al Qaeda to do his dirty work for years and the payments are ongoing. Judge Al Hittar who met many of the AQ leaders through the dialog program says now what I said in 2005, not one was reformed. He also says as I have said that the main conduits between the regime and the terrorists are through the security and intelligence services. Saleh and his relatives use AQAP as an instrument of foreign policy like they use the fanatics domestically. And the US must know this if everyone else knows it and has known it. Brennan must be deliberately lying with every statement and the embassy entirely content to knowingly betray millions of Yemenis in order to protect this relationship. The question is the US afraid of Saleh, in cahoots with Saleh or just stupid?

al Hadath (google translated): Chairman of the Commission launched a dialogue with members of the former al-Qaeda in Yemen and the Minister of Endowments and Guidance outgoing Judge Hamoud al-Hattar, a scathing attack on the Yemeni regime and accused him of “supporting a number of al Qaeda members in the show to frighten the West, and the suppression of the Yemeni revolution.”

Hitar announced in a statement the “Rai”, “that he knows many members of al-Qaeda in Yemen during his dialogue with them when he was chairman of the dialogue with Islamic militants, who are now dealing with the Yemeni regime and receive financial rewards.”

Hattar said, “It interlocutors over the past years did not return one of them, and did not Ihor number of al Qaeda who is dealing with the system, and accused the regime that gives them bonuses, refusing to reveal their names.”

He pointed out that “there is a committee of the system communicate with the base made ​​up of three officers, one in a private guards and the second in the national security and the third in the Interior.” And the contradictions of the opposition in their statements of information such as a «base» or not explained that «the media discourse of the opposition and the revolution was not successful », calling at the same time the opposition and called them« rebels »to« correct their mistakes ».

Saleh meets Saudi king for the first time since June, as reports emerge of Saudi weapons and vehicle shipment to Yemen.

M&C: Cairo/Sana’a – Thousands of opposition protesters backed by military defectors late Monday seized a base of the elite Republican Guards who are loyal to President Ali Abdallah Saleh in the capital, Arab media reported.

Just hours after 32 protesters were killed by Yemeni troops, the protesters and ex-soldiers stormed the base without firing a single shot, Al Arabiya quoted witnesses as saying. The Republican guards fled the base, leaving their weapons behind, the channel said.

Ahram: Forces of Yemen’s embattled president Ali Abdullah Salih fired on unarmed demonstrators elsewhere in the capital, killing scores, wounding hundreds and sparking international condemnation.

The protesters, joined by soldiers from the renegade 1st Armored Division, stormed the base Monday without firing a single shot, according to witnesses and security officials.

Some carried sticks and rocks. They used sandbags to erect barricades to protect their comrades from the possibility of weapons fire from inside the base, but none came and the Republican Guards eventually fled, leaving their weapons behind.

Although the base was not particularly large _ the Republican Guards have bigger ones in the capital and elsewhere in Yemen _ its capture buoyed the protesters’ spirits and signaled what could be the start of the collapse of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year-old regime.

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.

Russia, Yemen’s largest bilateral creditor due to enormous weapons purchases especially the big ticket MIGs, has a vested economic state in the survival of the Saleh regime. Check my category Russia for earlier.

Mareb press

Tribesmen of the revolution – west of the capital Sanaa – were able to prevent the movement of a large force made ​​up of columns of tanks, vehicles and armored trains loaded with weapons and ammunition, which was on its way to the capital Sana’a. The sources said that the convoy is from an arms deals with Russia, which arrived at the port of Hodeidah recently and includes 40 tanks and many other equipment. (Read on …)

The mutilation of tribesmens’ corpses in Arhab was one trigger for the formation of the new Alliance of Yemeni Tribes. Fourty rockets were launched against villages Friday. Operations are headed by the US allied counter-terror chief, Ahmed Saleh, head of the Republican Guard. Allegations go back and forth about al Zindani raising fighters for Arhab, his home district, from al Iman University, and Arhab was the location of the 2009 US air strike. In a statement, resident tribesmen invited international media to record the carnage and denied any affiliation with al Qaeda.

Sahwa Net- Yemeni forces launched about 40 rockets on Friday on some villages of Arhab, leaving dozens of people killed and wounded, local sources affirmed.

The sources said that many houses, framers and other properties were destroyed pointing out that the intensive bombardments provoking scare and panic among children, women and elderly men. (Read on …)

MoKhtar Al-Obaydi was abducted by the the national security while he was returning from the Change Square to his village in Arhab, north of Sanaaa, on the first of Ramadan. He teaches the religious studies at the Zaidi Sheikh Abo Nashdan’s Centere in Arhab.

The Republican Guard had been preparing and repositioning for the offensive over the last days. The tribesmen fortified their positions. A spokesman for the al Ahmars said they are sticking to the ceasefire agreement. Update: Defense Ministry denies the short lived clashes even occurred in Sanaa. Six protesting lack of electricity were shot dead in Hodiedah. Two killed in Aden after military accidentally opens fire.

Yemen Post: Two huge explosions were heard and clashes started in Hasaba zone of the capital Sana’a between tribes and republican guards, numerous eyewitnesses said. Residents in Hasabah said that hundreds of gunshots were heard starting at 5pm in the area and have been spreading to the neighborhoods of Mazda, Giraf, and Airport road of the capital. (Read on …)

The conflict in Arhab, Sanaa began after the Taiz massacre in May when the tribesmen locked down the Republican Guard base near Nehm to prevent further civilian slaughter. The Salehs responded by shelling villages and its been ongoing ever since. The state’s bombing of villages in Arhab is occurring at the same time as long term, near continual bombing in Radfan, ongoing clashes in al Jawf between the Houthis and Islahis, a long stretch of violence in Zinjibar, Abyan and increasing violence in Taiz including indiscriminate bombing. Violence against protesters in the squares is common, and ten were injured in Hodeidah yesterday.

These escalating cycles of violence across the country bear the same characteristics as the Saada War and the targeting of the Southern Movement: indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, blatant propaganda along with increased attacks on journalists, and collective punishment including denial of medical treatment. For more on the earlier conflicts, and how the state’s random violence bolstered the insurgencies, see my Sept.2010 article at Gloria.

SANA, Yemen (AP) — Fighting between Yemeni soldiers and armed tribesmen in a mountainous region north of Sana, the capital, killed at least 40 people on Thursday, a military official said.

The clashes in the Arhab region were part of a wider collapse in security across Yemen since the outbreak of an uprising six months ago that seeks to topple President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Armed tribesmen are battling security forces in Arhab, the southern city of Taiz and elsewhere, while militants believed to be linked to Al Qaeda have overrun towns in the country’s south.

The fighting on Thursday began when tribesmen attacked a base belonging to the Republican Guard, said Sheik Hamid Assem of the Arhab tribe. The military responded by shelling and bombing tribal positions, Mr. Assem said. A military official in Arhab said 17 soldiers had been killed in the fighting and that troops had seen the bodies of at least 23 dead tribesmen.

This poor guy has been surrounded for some time with no reinforcements or resupply, and he said in another interview that twice he refused orders to surrender to al Qaeda. There’s no way the US doesn’t know that Saleh et al are playing the al Qaeda card. Despite the total absence of US public diplomacy in Yemen, the message to 22 million Yemenis is loud and clear.

Sahwa Net- Commander of the 25th Mechanized Brigade in the Zinjibar city of Abyan governorate has said that Yemen security forces withdrew from Zinjbar and left behind large quantities of arms which al-Qaeda militants gained. (Read on …)

This all began months ago when the villagers locked down the RG camp as forces were deploying to attack some protesters. The villagers also captured and burned three helicopters in Nehm. The Saleh forces began randomly bombing residential areas and infrastructure in retaliation, a standard tactic. Arhab was also the site of the December 2009 US air strike and al Zindani is around there somewhere.

Yemen Post: A citizen was killed and three others injured when the republican guard continued shelling the district of Arhab on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sana’a on Saturday.

Local sources said the republican guard brigade 61 heavily shelled the village of Al-Obowa with artilleries and Katyusha rockets leading to the casualties and destroying homes and properties. (Read on …)

The video shows the Republican Guard looting an orphans charity in Taiz, Yemen and carting off televisions, tables, chairs and anything not bolted down. It goes on for ten minutes.

Lets predict the future, shall we? The 60 al Qaeda “escapees” who were released with government assistance from the Hadramout prison enter Aden, now that the security is gone, and start shooting in the air, terrifying residents. They take over a recently abandoned radio station and announce an Islamic Emirate. Western media reports a third town has fallen to AQAP.

A few soldiers get sent in to be slaughtered and then the military pulls back. Yemeni government officials announce their deaths in battle against “al Qaeda.” The US trained, funded and equipped counter-terror forces are busy attacking the protesters.

The defected military and/or locals attempting to guard their houses engage the state jihaddists, the so called AQAP. The Yemeni military then bombs those who are fighting the al Qaeda uprising that was fully orchestrated by the state.

Western media runs with the Yemeni government report that the dead were AQAP. Maybe Yemen announces Qasim al Reimi was killed for the fifth time. Some residents flee the state’s bombing and violence on the streets, including the 60,000 displaced from Zinjibar, and are left without food or shelter. Others protest against al Qaeda and demand law and order.

The US lobs some drones, misses and kills civilians, but denies they were civilians because they fit the US’s newly designated “pattern of life” criteria that qualifies them for death. There’s yet another narrow miss on Awlaki. Also killed Saleh’s enemies and/or maybe some actual al Qaeda with inside knowledge of the regime’s dirty deals. When Spain calls for a transition of political power, some Spanish aid workers are mysteriously kidnapped and never heard from again.

The DOD praises Yemen’s efforts against AQAP, continuing the US’s re-branding of the duplicitous, double dealing Saleh regime as a “consistently good partner” in the WOT. The lobotomized media reprints the phrase. There’s some mysterious construction on Perim Island. And the State Department continues its intense lobbying efforts for immunity for Saleh and retention of as much of the US trained CT forces as possible while belittling the protesters as not politically savvy. The protesters however see through all the schemes and continue to demand all Saleh’s relatives go and a restructuring of the security forces.

And that’s roughly what happened in Zinjibar and Loder, except in Loder some extremists from Sanaa were recruited to go command the state financed groups of militants in Lahj as well as recruit brainwashed youths who don’t realize they are dying for Saleh.

Update, and so it begins: Suicide car bomb kills three soldiers in Aden. DNA results on the bomber should be along any minute. Update: Wow that was fast even by Yemeni standards: the regime asserts the bomber was an AQAP member from Abyan, on the list of most wanted. “The sources confirmed that a number of leaders of al-Qaeda were present now in the province of Abyan, led by Fahd al Quso, and Nasser Wahishi, and Qasim al-Rimi, and al-Shihri, and wanted Saudis, Libyans, Pakistanis, Somalis, and believes that they are they planning for the operation.”

The National: US drone attacks in Yemen ignore Al Qaeda for local militants

Yaf3: Popular committees are being formed in Aden because the regime’s forces are contributing to the lawlessness and assassinations. Having the unit physically walk over the mutinous soldiers at Anad military base is a common practice of military discipline.

Arhab: Republican Guard shelling kills 17 including a woman, 35 injured, 86 houses and eight wells destroyed, over 1000 homeless.

In Jaar, Abyan Yemeni war planes bomb house of the former Secretary General of the Yemeni Socialist Party. Military fails to make progress against the militants.

Brigade 119, deployed as reinforcements to brigade 22 Mika, withdraws more then 10 km outside Zinjibar.

In Lahj, Southern Movement activists are surrounding army forces on outskirts of city. al Habylean shelled for second consecutive day (6/26)

Hodeidah citizens are holding diesel tankers in Beit al-Faqih and Almaraoeah protesting against the lack of fuel in their province.

The Republican Guard in Al-Samaa renew bombing Nahm, Sanaa with Katyusha rockets

The Chinese news agency is reporting clashes in Aden as spun by government officials.

YOL At least five Al Qaeda militants and one Yemeni soldier were killed in fierce battles between extremists and security forces in south of Yemen Thursday, a military official said.

Heavy clashes broke out at night at the main entrance of port city of Aden, Xinhua reported. Three groups of Al Qaeda militants carried out attacks targeting the main entrance of Aden and led to violent clashes between the two sides.

Heavy machine guns and artilleries were used during the clashes, said the official, who requested anonymity. Local residents said heavy gunshots and rockets could be heard near the Al-Alam entrance.

Al Qaeda militants of its Yemen-based wing have stationed on the eastern outskirts of the country’s Aden city for two days to prepare to forcibly enter the city.

Beaumont Enterprise: Residents of Aden say military forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently removed checkpoints at the city’s entrances and withdrew, raising fears that Islamic militants who seized two nearby towns after government forces carried out a similar pullback could attempt a takeover of the strategic port city… (Read on …)

Yemen Post: Republican guards killed a 14-year old boy in Yemen’s Taiz province on Wednesday, where a massive demonstration was held coinciding with protests in other cities to urge the youth-led protesters to finish their revolution and to refuse external mandate or interventions.

Locals at Street 60th at the city’s entrance said republican guards fired at passengers inside a bus killing the teen and injuring others. The incident took place amid insecurity in Taiz, which saw deadly clashes between the army and armed tribesmen in the past weeks.

In other Taiz related news, Haykel Saed Corp is negotiating between the families of the protesters killed by forces under the supervision of lunatic security chief (transferred from Aden after several bloodbaths) Abdullah Qiran. There’s no resolution yet as the families are demanding a trial. Qiran was also charged with the murder of Ahmed Darwish tortured to death in Aden jail. One major outstanding protesters’ demand is the purge and reformation of the security forces.

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 …)

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 …)

To my recollection, a search here on Ammar al Waeli will likely lead to the following history. Al Waeli was the subject of a 2002 FBI seeking info alert generated by an associate of Fawaz al Rabie, killed in 2006. Al Waeli was seen by eyewitnesses on a rooftop in Saada City exhorting residents against the Houthis during the sixth war (2010) while Ali Mohsen’s troops chewed qat. Al Waeli was also involved in the 2009 plot against Saudi CT chief Prince Naif along with Naif al Qatahani. Al Waeli, along with Hamza al Dyanai was allegedly instrumental in the 2007 murder of eight Spanish tourists and two Yemenis in Marib in a suicide bombing by the (also deceased) Hamza al Qaiti group.

Al Waeli was convicted on terror charges in March. My assumption at the time was he was tried in absentia although the Saleh regime didn’t mention that part. Now in theory he is killed exiting Zinjibar, echoing some southerners reports of the RG attacking fleeing residents. Just keep in mind, Qasim al Reimi was reported dead three times by the Saleh regime. Al Waeli was also reported as killed in Jan 2010. Its important to note that different aspects of the Yemeni regime have relations with different groups of jihaddist mercenaries or state jihaddists as I call them, like al Nabi.

The Jaber al Shabwanis are possibly relatives but certainly tribesmen of the tribal sheik/assistant governor of Marib Jaber al Shabwani who was killed in an errant air strike (by who is still a question, in Marib some insist it was a Yemeni plane) as he was en route to negotiate al Qaeda surrenders. Ali Mohsen said recently Saleh orchestrated the hit on Sheik Shabwani. The sheik was the brother of Ayyed al Shabwani, a know al Qaeda operative.

al Motamar

The source made clear that a number of the organisation leaderships and its dangerous elements have been killed in qualitative operations by army men from brigade 201 and mechanized brigade 35 while those elements were fleeing Zanjibar city.

The source added that the operations led to the killing of terrorist Amar Abada al-Waeli, one of the most dangerous leaders of al-Qaeda organisation and with him seven other elements in addition to killing the terrorist Abu Ali al-Harithi , a leading element in Shabwa province , terrorist Abu Ayman al-Masri , media official in the organisation , terrorist Ali Saleh Farhan ‘amir of the organisation in Mareb province an a number of terrorist elements that came from Mareb province , among them the terrorist Mabkhout Ali Jaber al-Shuwani and wounding his brother Fahad Ali Jaber al-Shuwani .

MOHAMMED ABDULMALIK ALTAIYEB was arrested 5/5/11 in Maryland and charged with possession of illegal drugs (prescription pills without a prescription), marijuana, some other non-marijuana drugs and a concealed weapon (update: not a gun, could be anything from a knife to numchucks ). He is the son of the head of Yemeni Central Security Abdulmalik al Taiyeb who is in charge of anti terror activity, receives millions of dollars from US and in theory is Yahya Saleh’s boss, but its a technicality. However I lost interest in this story entirely when I discovered it wasn’t a gun in his possession. Case documents (Read on …)

Attacking citizens Intra-brigade clashes in Taiz despite the cease fire. Battle in al Habylean, Lahj. RG reinforcements en route to Taiz halted on Ibb road by locals. Snipers kill 3 of al Ahmar’s men in Sanaa. Nine soldiers killed in the south by “gunmen.” Prince Ahmed and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse have to stand down, as well as Mohsen’s men and the defected military. Sadiq al Ahmar pledged to honor the cease fire as long as the Saleh forces do. GCC, EU, US all urge restraint. The enmity and rivalry between Ahmed and Ali Mohsen has deep roots. Ahmed moved into the palace, not Hadi, and more from Comment Middle East:

The position of state television remains the same, indicating that the regime is still in tact, even if it has been decapitated. More worrying for the protesters is Hadi’s reported statement that Saleh will return in the next few days. Even if this is not feasible due to Saleh’s apparent condition, it is clear that those who back him are still clinging on, and still maintain some sort of influence over Hadi.

This should not take away from the sense of joy and achievement being felt in Sana’a and the rest of the country. Although there are still sporadic bouts of violence, especially in the second city Taiz, the sound of explosions has been replaced by that of fireworks, and people have been flocking to the protest squares around the country to celebrate. If anything, a large presence in the protest squares would indicate to those still unsure that the regime is done for.

The protesters have also indicated that, although they welcome the departure of Saleh, it is only the first of their demands, and that they will not leave their tent cities until all their demands are met. In the focus on the al-Ahmar – Saleh rivalry many analysts have overlooked the power of the youth movement, which is huge in a country where the average age is 17.

As per usual in Yemen things are being done unusually….

Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani has an optimistic view that Saleh is not returning, the political process will take hold and describes lingering skirmishes as expected and diminishing.

There’s a Bill of Rights floating around, pdf. Hadi chairs meeting security council.Otherwise quiet but tense. Military prepares to storm Zinjibar.

Update: late night explosions and/or clashes around the Presidential palace in Taiz.