Yemen [Archive] - It's Happening Forums

Casey

03-28-2005, 12:05 PM

Middle East ; Al Qaeda suspect tells Sanaa court of plot to attack British embassy:
36 minutes Ago

[Middle East News] SANAA - The purported chief of an Al Qaeda cell in Yemen, one of eight suspects facing trial on charges of plotting to attack Western targets in Sanaa, told a court here Monday he had planned a strike against the British embassy at the behest of the network’s Saudi branch.

“I was entrusted by the brethren in Saudi Arabia to plan an operation against the British embassy. We collected information which we passed on to the brethren in Saudi Arabia,” Anwar al-Jilani told the court in the Yemeni capital.

Jilani, 20, has been described as the head of the eight-member cell suspected of membership in Saudi-born Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, which went on trial March 21.

The eight face charges of forming an armed gang to carry out attacks, forging passports and other documents, and possessing arms and explosives, judicial sources said at the opening of the trial.

The prosecution has accused them of plotting to attack the British and Italian embassies and the French cultural center in the Yemeni capital.

But Jilani insisted he never intended to carry out the attacks.

“My task was limited to planning. Execution was up to the brethren in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“When I was in Saudi Arabia, I was asked to collect information about the British embassy. Several other embassies were mentioned... the Italian embassy was a secondary target,” Jilani said, denying the French cultural center had been a potential target.

The seven other suspects standing trial are Khaled al-Batati, 23; Salah Othman, 33; Omran al-Faqih, 31; Abdurrahman Basira, 25, and Majed Mizan, 21, both former residents of Saudi Arabia; Mohammad Abdulwahhab Bakri, a 24-year-old Syrian, and his brother Ahmad, 22.

The trial was adjourned to April 11.

On March 21, the same Sanaa court handed down two-year jail terms to six Yemenis accused of Al Qaeda membership. They were among a group of 11 Al Qaeda suspects accused of planning to carry out ”criminal acts” in Yemen and abroad.

But the court sentenced the six to two-year prison terms only on charges of forging passports and other documents, while clearing the five others of all charges.

[Middle East News] Yemen has at Washington’s behest cracked down on suspected Al Qaeda militants since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

An appeals court last month upheld a death sentence against a Yemeni and sentenced to death another jailed over the bombing of the French tanker Limburg off Yemen’s southeastern coast in October 2002 and other attacks.

They were among a group of 15 Yemenis sentenced in August for the Limburg blast and a series of other operations.

The appeals court also upheld a death sentence against an Al Qaeda militant for the 2000 bombing of the US destroyer Cole in Aden port but commuted another to 15 years in prison.

In all, six militants have been charged with the attack, which killed 17 US sailors and was claimed by Al Qaeda.

http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=165268

Petronas

04-01-2005, 11:27 AM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 30 March 2005, the U.S. Embassy in
Sanaa issued the following Warden Message: "This Warden Message is being
issued to reiterate our previous warning advising against travel to the
Sadah region following recent military activity in the area. The U.S.
Embassy also advises Americans to exercise caution in the Old City of
Sanaa, particularly around the Baab al-Yemen area, following a security
incident there the afternoon of March 29. The incident is still being
investigated and the embassy will provide further information as soon as
it becomes available. ..."

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS - 3/31/2005

Petronas

04-08-2005, 12:40 AM

Yemen Clashes Continue as Mediation Bid Fails
Thursday, 7, April, 2005 (27, Safar, 1426)

SANAA, 7 April 2005 — Fierce clashes broke out again yesterday between followers of a radical preacher and government forces in northern Yemen after efforts exerted by tribal chieftains to mediate an end to the standoff failed. Tribal sources in the northern province of Saada said military forces surrounding remote mountainous areas resumed bombardment on hideouts of the preacher Badruddin Al-Houthi, whom the government blames for violence in the province.

More than 30 people were killed or wounded yesterday as heavy fighting pitted army troops and counter-terrorism units against the rebels the Al-Shafia and Wadi Nushur (Nushur Valley) areas of Saada province, military and tribal sources said. Meanwhile, the deputy governor of Saada, Hassan Mannaa, escaped an ambush laid by the rebels in the town of Saada yesterday, a source close to Mannaa said. But five of his bodyguards were seriously wounded when his car came under fire.

The fighting was resumed after mediators appointed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh failed to secure the surrender of Badruddin Al-Houthi and his armed followers who are holed up in mountainous hideouts in Saada, 250 kilometers north of the capital Sanaa. Local officials in Saada said the mediation team, headed by Sheikh Saleh ibn Shajaa negotiated on Monday with Abdullah Eyda Al-Ruzami, a close aide to Al-Houthi. They said Al-Ruzami refused to turn himself in to authorities or abandon Al-Houthi.

The government has blamed Badruddin Al-Houthi, father of the slain cleric Hussein Al-Houthi, for the fresh round of clashes in Saada on the borders with Saudi Arabia. Violent clashes between followers of Al-Houthi and military forces in Saada have left around 100 people killed since the fighting renewed on March 28, after officials said members of Al-Houthi’s Believing Youth group attacked military and police posts.

Clashes first erupted last June and ended with the death of Hussein Al-Houthi on Sept. 10. The first round of fighting that lasted for more than ten weeks left at least 400 soldiers and rebels dead.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=61719&d=7&m=4&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World%22

Casey

04-09-2005, 07:32 AM

US toughens warning for Yemen, allows departures
(Reutres)

9 April 2005

WASHINGTON - The US State Department ramped up its travel advisory for Yemen on Friday as it warned it was concerned about possible attacks by extremists against US citizens or interests in the Middle Eastern state.

Britain also cited risks in Yemen on Friday. It suspended work at its embassy there “in the light of a current, credible threat to Western interests,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Yemen was the site of the 2000 USS Cole bombing, which killed 17 US sailors, and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg, which killed one.

The US notice warned Americans to delay traveling to Yemen and authorised the voluntary departure of family members and non-emergency personnel working at the US Embassy in the capital Sanaa.

“The Department of State warns US citizens to defer non-essential travel to Yemen,” it said in the latest travel warning.

The department issued a warning in November that the risks to all US citizens in Yemen remained high due to terrorist activities, but wording in its newest warning was stronger.

“The Department is concerned about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against US citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests and therefore has authorized the voluntary departure from Yemen of non-emergency personnel and eligible family members,” it warned.

The earlier advisory did not ask Americans to delay non-essential travel, nor did it authorise a voluntary departure from the embassy in Sanaa.

Britain’s warning recommended vigilance.

“There is a high threat from terrorism and evidence that terrorists may target Western, including British, interests in Yemen. You should be particularly vigilant in places frequented by foreigners, such as hotels,” the Foreign Office said in advice to travelers.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the embassy, closed on Friday for the Muslim Sabbath, would not open on Saturday as scheduled.

“We are continuing to monitor the security situation. The safety of our staff is paramount,” the official said when asked when the embassy would reopen.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, has cooperated with the US-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Washington has praised it for fighting Al Qaeda.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5669863&cKey=1113016816000

1001

04-09-2005, 07:40 AM

Britain closes embassy in Yemen after receiving 'credible security threat'
Fri Apr 8, 2:58 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Britain said it was suspending all operations at its embassy in Yemen after receiving a credible security threat as Yemeni government forces killed more than 70 rebels during two days of clashes in a northern Yemeni town.

"We have had a credible security threat which we are obviously taking very seriously so we are suspending all operations in the British embassy," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

"Obviously it's closed today anyway because it's a weekend in Yemen. But the embassy will remain closed tomorrow until further notice," he added. "The only thing I can say is that there has been a current and credible threat and we have taken the precautionary measure of suspending all operations from Saturday the 9th of April."

Followers of a slain rebel preacher went on a shooting spree in the Yemeni town of Saada Friday after more than 70 of their comrades were killed during two days of fierce clashes with government forces, residents and tribal sources said.

The fighting on Wednesday and Thursday, which ended with Yemeni government forces taking control of rebel outposts in northwestern Saada province, also left more than 30 soldiers and police dead or wounded, pro-government tribal sources said.

Residents of Saada town said members of the Faithful Youth movement sneaked into the city at dawn Friday and took over a number of buildings from which they sniped at army and police units, sparking shootouts that left at least eight rebels and four police dead.

An undetermined number of civilians were also killed or wounded.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050408/wl_uk_afp/britainyemensecurity_050408185836

Petronas

04-10-2005, 01:15 PM

Washington briefly shuts Yemen embassy
10 April 2005 Sunday 30 Safar 1426

SANAA, April 9: The United States shut its embassy in Yemen on Saturday for what it called "administrative work" after Britain suspended operations at its mission, citing a "credible security threat". A Yemeni security source brushed off the alleged threat, although the country has witnessed a series of Al Qaeda-linked attacks in recent years.

The purported chief of an Al Qaeda cell in Yemen, one of eight suspects facing trial on charges of plotting to attack Western targets in Sanaa, told a court here late last month he had planned a strike against the British embassy at the behest of the network's Saudi branch.

A source at the US embassy insisted the closure was for one day to carry out administrative work, despite the fact that it came after the US State Department authorized non-essential personnel and diplomats' families to leave Yemen. "The department is concerned about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against US citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests and therefore has authorized the voluntary departure from Yemen of non-emergency personnel and eligible family members," it said on Friday. The department also warned US citizens to defer non-essential travel to Yemen.

The Foreign Office in London said earlier on Friday that the embassy in Sanaa would remain closed from Saturday until further notice. An AFP reporter saw police patrols and troops deployed around the embassy, and security was also reinforced around a number of Western facilities, including the British Council and a US language centre.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/04/10/top18.htm

Casey

04-10-2005, 07:18 PM

April 10, 2005 6:05 PM

UK Embassy in Yemen Reopens, U.S. Mission Still Shut

SANAA (Reuters) - The British embassy in Yemen reopened onSunday after a one-day closure over concerns of possiblemilitant attacks in the Arab state but the U.S. embassyremained shut, embassy officials said.

A senior Yemeni Foreign Ministry official told Reuters thatthe authorities in Sanaa had investigated and taken "measuresagainst terrorist threats" and that he expected the U.S.mission to reopen on Monday.

The Unites States and Britain warned on Friday of apossible militant attack on their citizens and interests inYemen, which has cracked down on al Qaeda supporters since theSept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

"We opened today based on our contact with the ForeignOffice in London," a British embassy official told Reuters.

U.S. embassy spokesman John Balian did not say when themission would reopen. "We are going on a day to day basis."

The embassies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa were closed onThursday and Friday for the Muslim weekend.

Yemeni Deputy Foreign Minister Mustafa Noman told Reutersthe Yemeni government had been aware of the "terroristthreats."

"These threats were investigated and the necessary measureswere taken and the matter is over," he said withoutelaborating.

Security has been boosted in Sanaa and witnesses saidpolice were conducting searches for weapons.

Washington has urged Americans to delay travel to Yemen andauthorized voluntary departure of non-emergency embassy staff.

London cited "a current, credible threat to Westerninterests." In January, the British mission in Sanaa closed for10 days in January over security concerns.

Western embassies in Yemen have been under heavy securitysince the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. In 2003, Yemen said it foiledplanned attacks on the U.S. and British missions in Sanaa.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, hascooperated with the U.S.-led "war on terrorism." It alsocracked down on militants following attacks at home, includingthe 2000 USS Cole bombing and the 2002 attack on the Frenchsupertanker Limburg.

Yemeni security forces have been battling rebels loyal to aslain anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric in the north of the country forseveral weeks. But officials said there was no link between thewarnings and the clashes that have killed over 150 people.

Reuters
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5672552&cKey=1113149135000

Petronas

04-11-2005, 02:05 PM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 11 April 2005, the U.S. Embassy reopened after remaining closed for two days due to security concerns. Though no specific threat has been reported, the embassy indicated that it had received information related to general security threats. A diplomatic source reported that the closure was not related to ongoing clashes between government forces and Shiite rebels in the northern province of Saada. The embassy of the United Kingdom, which also closed on 9 April, reopened on 10 April.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 4/11/2005

Petronas

04-11-2005, 02:38 PM

50 killed as Yemeni forces, rebels clash
11 April 2005 Monday 01 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

SANAA, April 10: At least 40 rebels and 10 soldiers have been killed in fresh clashes in Yemen's mountainous north west, military and tribal sources said on Sunday, as government forces pursue followers of a slain rebel preacher. Yemeni forces have killed at least 40 rebels and captured 50 others since Friday, they said, adding that 10 government soldiers had also died in fierce fighting that has left close to 270 people dead in less than a fortnight.

Government forces are trying to track down followers of Sheikh Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi with whom they have been locked in combat in Saada province since the end of March. Tribal sources said on Friday that insurgents had retreated north to the rugged Lawdiya area as the noose tightened around the members of Huthi's Faithful Youth movement.

Around 270 people have now been reported killed and dozens wounded on both sides since the fighting began between troops and police and supporters of Huthi, a staunch Zaidi preacher killed by the army last September. Huthi was killed nearly three months after he started a rebellion in the north west, near the border with Saudi Arabia, triggering clashes that left more than 400 people dead.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly asked a new mediation committee to work with local authorities to persuade Huthi's father Badr Eddin, who authorities say is now the rebels' spiritual leader, to surrender along with militants who have attacked security targets. This follows official reports of the failure of another mediation committee set up at Saleh's behest to persuade the rebels to turn themselves in. However, tribal sources have said the rebels are being led by Abdullah Ayedh al-Razami, a top Huthi aide, Madani, and Huthi's brother, Abdul Malak.

Razami surrendered to authorities along with dozens of supporters 10 days after Huthi's death was announced, but he was later released and returned to Saada. The authorities had accused the slain preacher of seeking to foment sectarian strife. But the preacher told AFP last July the conflict was a result of his anti-US stand. The Zaidis are a moderate Shia sect dominant in north west Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/04/11/int3.htm

Casey

04-13-2005, 07:33 AM

Yemen controls rebel stronghold

SANAA: Yemen said on Tuesday its troops had taken control of rebel strongholds after weeks of deadly clashes with supporters of a slain Shi’ite cleric in the north of the Arab state. "The confrontations have practically ended since last Wednesday," President Ali Abdullah Saleh told reporters, adding that government troops controlled rebel areas. At least 170 security forces and followers of anti-US cleric Hussein al-Houthi have been killed in the violence, which erupted on March 19.

Houthi, a Shia cleric from the Zaidi sect, was killed last September along with at least 200 rebels after two months of fighting with state troops. The government blames Houthi’s father, Sheikh Badr el-Deen, for the new round of fighting. "They (rebels) are outlaws with no political weight and do not pose any threat to Yemen’s unity," said the president, who belongs to the Zaidi sect.

Yemen says Houthi’s armed group is trying to install Shia religious rule and is preaching violence against the United States and Israel at mosques. The group is not linked to al -Qaeda. Authorities have detained around 800 suspected followers and have shut unregistered religious schools run by the group. Sunni Muslims make up most of Yemen’s 19 million population, while Shias compose about 15 per cent.

Yemen has joined the US-led war on terrorism since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. It has cracked down on al-Qaeda-linked militants following attacks at home, including the 2000 USS Cole bombing and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2005-daily/13-04-2005/world/w13.htm

Petronas

04-16-2005, 01:25 AM

Yemen: Rebellion quashed
Last Updated 2005-04-13 11:16:22
By Hammoud Mounassar - SANAA

Yemeni authorities say they have quashed a rebellion by members of the minority Zaidi community, which has left some 280 people dead in two weeks, but leaders of the "sedition" are still on the run.

Despite an announcement by a higher security committee, widely reported in Wednesday's media, that the revolt in northwestern Saada province was over, tribal sources reported at least one clash leaving seven rebels dead on Tuesday. They were among about 40 rebels besieged by security forces in Dammaj, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the site of the clashes which erupted on March 28. The rest fled.

The committee, comprising defense and interior ministry officials, said government forces had effectively seized control of rebel outposts in Saada on April 6. "The rebellion started by Badr Eddin al-Huthi and the subversive outlaws who supported him has been quashed," it said, referring to the father of Hussein al-Huthi, a radical Zaidi preacher who was killed by the army last September after leading a nearly three-month uprising in Saada. Security forces who combed the battleground forced many of the rebels to surrender, and are now hunting down "the head of the sedition after he fled from his hideout," it said in reference to Huthi senior.

Huthi is considered the spiritual leader of the rebels from the Faithful Youth movement. Ground commanders being chased by the security forces include his son Abdul Malak, Abdullah Ayedh al-Razami and Yussef al-Madani.

The committee did not give casualty figures, saying only that "many" members of the security forces and civilians had been killed or wounded as a result of rebel attacks. But a tally based on accounts from military and tribal sources since the latest fighting began suggests some 280 people have been killed and dozens wounded on both sides. More than 400 people were killed last year before the revolt led by Hussein al-Huthi in the mountainous northwest, near the border with Saudi Arabia, was put down.

The security committee accused Huthi's father of reneging on his pledges to the state after it pardoned him and granted him safety following the uprising waged by the slain cleric. Huthi and his supporters also spurned all efforts by mediation committees to stop the bloodshed and rejected attempts by an "intellectual dialogue" panel to "persuade them to abandon their ... extremism and fanaticism," it said. The army and security forces would continue to act as "guardian of all gains achieved by our struggling people under the banner of the revolution and republic," the security committee statement said.

The Zaidis are a moderate Shiite Muslim sect dominant in northwestern Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country. They consider the Yemeni regime to lack legitimacy, having taken control after overthrowing the Zaidi imamate in a 1962 army coup referred to as the September 26 revolution.

In remarks reported in Wednesday's media, President Ali Abdullah Saleh described the rebels as "a group of subversive, regressive and backward" people who are "looking back 43 years." The rebels also claim to oppose Sanaa's policy of forging close ties with the United States. Hussein Huthi said last July the conflict was a result of his anti-US stand, while authorities accused him of seeking to foment sectarian strife.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/yemen/?id=13216

Atlas

04-16-2005, 10:43 PM

Yemen Warns of Secret Extremist Schools

By Associated Press

April 16, 2005, 8:40 PM EDT

SAN`A, Yemen -- Underground religious schools that promote extremist forms of Islam are drawing more than 300,000 young students across Yemen, the country's prime minister said Saturday.

Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal warned that the religious education promoting the ideas of Wahhabism, a strict form of Islam, "will bring a disaster to Yemen and this generation." He promised to eliminate the underground schools, which he estimated numbered about 4,000 and drew about 330,000 students.

"We are not against the religious education ... but we are against extremism," he said in a speech to teachers and Education Ministry officials.

Bajammal said that the government will not remain silent over what he described as "crimes committed against our children and the next generations."

Like many Persian Gulf countries, Yemen -- the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden -- largely funded and did not interfere with religious schools before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States

After the attacks, the country initiated an anti-terrorism state policy and began monitoring what was being taught, attaching conditions to financial assistance and shutting down the Religious Institutions Department in the Education Ministry.

Religious officials have condemned the government for its policy change.

It was in the southern Yemeni port of Aden that the USS Cole was bombed in 2000, killing 17 American sailors.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-yemen-religious-schools,0,7308397,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Casey

04-20-2005, 10:46 PM

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 · Last updated 12:01 a.m. PT

Yemeni forces facing threats on two fronts

By AHMED AL-HAJ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SAN`A, Yemen -- After years of working to shake its reputation as a hotbed of Islamic militancy, Yemen is now trying to keep the lid on two separate threats, both of which have bubbled up into violence and can do so again.

One threat is al-Qaida and its sympathizers among Islamic extremists who have targeted foreigners in this mountainous nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

A group of al-Qaida suspects is standing trial - raising fears of revenge attacks. Vague security warnings have Western embassies wary, prompting the U.S. and British missions to shut down briefly earlier this month. The government has hinted of a new crackdown targeting underground schools teaching extremism.

At the same time, the government is facing a persistent rebellion by Shiite tribesman - followers of cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al-Hawthi, who was killed in September after months of battles with Yemeni security forces.

This month, troops had to put down a resumption of violence by his followers, thought to be led by his father, Badr Eddin al-Hawthi, in fighting that tribal sources say killed 250 people on both sides. The elder al-Hawthi escaped the crackdown.

The two movements are not linked. Al-Hawthi's followers are angry at the government, saying it has become too closely allied with Washington, and have focused their attacks on security forces. But they oppose Wahhabism - the ultraconservative stream of Sunni Islam said to feed al-Qaida-style militancy - and reject attacking foreigners.

Still, the two threats together have the country on alert. Yemeni troops are in the hills of the northwest region of Sa'dah, hunting for al-Hawthi's fighters. In the capital, extra soldiers are guarding government buildings.

The United States and British embassies in San`a both shut down April 9, and the State Department warned Americans not to travel to Yemen. Officials refused to specify the nature of the threat. The British embassy reopened within a day and the American within two, but the U.S. travel warning remains in effect.

Security officials acknowledged to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity concern about new sabotage attempts by al-Hawthi's followers - and about the possibility of new al-Qaida attacks to capitalize on the tense situation.

Yemen has long had a reputation of tolerating lawlessness and Islamic militancy. It is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and has witnessed many attacks on foreign targets, including the 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.

After the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the Yemeni government aligned itself with the U.S.-led war on terror, avoiding American retribution but angering some Yemenis.

The country is now putting some al-Qaida suspects on trial - including seven suspects charged with plotting attacks on the British and Italian embassies and the French cultural center.

Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal hinted at a further crackdown, saying Saturday the government won't stay silent about underground Islamic extremist schools with some 330,000 students. He warned such teaching will "bring disaster to Yemen."

The government has depicted al-Hawthi's followers as an outlaw movement in this country where tribes often resist central authority and where private weapons are widespread. It accused the younger al-Hawthi of forming an armed group, "The Believing Youth," with the aim of inciting against the United States through speeches in mosques and illegally organized demonstrations.

A Western diplomat speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity said al-Hawthi's followers are not considered terrorists and that the situation is instead considered a rebellion.

But in a nation where authorities estimate 60 million firearms are circulating - averaging about three per citizen - any armed clash can become a major security concern.

So far, the revolt hasn't spilled over into attacks on foreigners, the diplomat said. "But any time there is any armed conflict, you're worried in general."

---

Associated Press reporter Rawya Rageh contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Yemen%20Restive%20Days

Petronas

04-21-2005, 03:12 PM

Insurgents rattle an edgy Yemen
April 21, 2005

SAADA, YEMEN In the dark, a young Yemeni soldier nervously scans the row of battered cars approaching his dusty checkpoint situated amid the volcanic mountains of Yemen's remote north. "Get out of this place, it's dangerous," he shouts at passing drivers, pointing the beam of his flashlight into the shadowy palm trees by the roadside.

Since last summer, nearly 1,000 people have been killed as Yemen's Army battles Zaidi Shiite insurgents throughout the bleak, fossilized landscape of northern Yemen. Rebel clerics have denounced the government's ties with America and demanded an end to its gradual social and democratic reforms. In the government's place, radical cleric Badr Eddin al-Houthi wants to install an Islamic theocracy.

Fighting escalated March 28 after members of Mr. Houthi's rebel group Al Shabab al-Moumin, the Youthful Believers, attacked police in Saada, an isolated town in the north. Since then, The Associated Press estimates, 43 Yemeni troops and 37 militants have been killed, while local media put the total at nearly 300. While government troops seem to have emerged victorious from the latest fighting - they overran the main rebel strongholds last Wednesday - the rebel leader and hundreds of his armed followers remain unaccounted for.

Many observers worry that the government may not be able to stamp out entirely al-Houthi's group, which aims to topple the country's embryonic democracy. They are also concerned that thousands of anti-Western rebels defeated in their tribal heartlands could attack foreigners and Western interests. Earlier this month, both the American and British embassies temporarily closed and warned their nationals to leave Yemen. "In Yemen, the two things which matter to people are tribes and religion," says Nadia al-Saqqaf, editor of the Yemen Times, an English-language newspaper. "And when someone combines the two, they can easily become a substantial political force."

This explosion of violence has been a devastating setback to the Yemeni government, which has tamed the threat from Al Qaeda and was beginning to enjoy the cautious return of tourists and foreign investors. Without large oil reserves or any modern industry, Yemen is particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen's largest port, and the bombing of the French supertanker, the Limberg, in 2002, cost the country millions as shipping insurance premiums soared and many shipowners refused to dock in Yemen. It also frightened off tens of thousands of mainly European tourists who came to admire the country's spectacular landscape and ancient mud-brick cities.

Most Yemenis agree that the revolt stands little chance of success against the full might of the government, pointing out that the minority Zaidi sect makes up only a fifth of Yemen's population. But unlike last summer, when the rebels made their doomed final stand in an isolated mountain stronghold, this time they are choosing to fight in cities and towns. In addition, al-Houthi's views have increasingly gained traction far beyond the Zaidi sect.

Many Yemenis are angry that Yemen's fledgling democracy has failed to bring prosperity or accountability to their impoverished nation, while members of the government are seen as entrenching themselves in power to make fortunes through corruption. "Just saying that the country is a democracy is not enough. We need to change this culture that says that violence is the solution to all our problems," says Abdul-Rahman al-Marwani, who runs an NGO that tries to arbitrate in tribal wars.

Part of the government's problem, however, is that many extreme religious groups refuse to operate within a democratic system that they see as invalid. "Al-Houthi's followers think that the government does not follow sharia," says Mr. Saqqaf, the editor. "Therefore they say that they have a right to take up arms and fight the government." Yemen's struggle to reconcile democracy and popular fundamentalist readings of Islam has been long and violent. Last year, a three-month uprising by the Youthful Believers ended with the killing of the rebel leader Hussein al-Houthi.

The latest violence, led by his elderly father, may prove harder to crush as the rebels continue to carry out attacks on government forces across a large swath of northern Yemen. The government-funded newspaper Al-Thowra reported that the Army is "convincing the rebels to surrender," although others say that the government is determined to annihilate them in a bid to deter any future uprisings. "There are no grounds for negotiation with the rebels," says Dr. Ahmed al-Kibsi, a professor of politics at Sanaa University. "How can the government negotiate with a group whose only aim is to overthrow the government?"

http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=685256

Petronas

04-26-2005, 01:01 AM

Death for cleric is upheld
Sunday 24 April 2005

SANAA: A Yemeni appeals court yesterday upheld a death sentence against an Islamist imam who murdered a senior opposition leader three years ago and of co-ordinating the plot that killed three American missionaries in a southern hospital days later. Ali Ahmed Jarallah confessed in July 2003 that he had acted alone in shooting dead Jarallah Omar, deputy leader of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party, at a party conference in Sanaa the previous year.

Jarallah immediately blasted the verdict as unfair, saying the killing was part of a jihad or holy war against converts to Christianity and infidels.

The appeals court aquitted 10 others who had previously been sentenced to prison terms of three to 10 years for belonging to a gang that the cleric allegedly created to murder socialists, Arab nationalists and converts to Christianity. Jarallah is a former member of Yemen's Islamist Al Islah Party who quit the party shortly before the killing, complaining it had gone soft on Westerners and minority Islamic sects.

The conviction upheld against Jarallah also included his involvement in a plot that killed three Americans at a Southern Baptist missionary hospital in Jibla, southern Yemen, two days after Omar's assassination, as well as forming a terror cell to buy weapons and kill local officials and foreigners.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=110263&Sn=WORL&IssueID=28035

Petronas

04-26-2005, 09:55 PM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 25 April 2005, an assailant attacked a military vehicle with a hand grenade in Sanaa, in close proximity to the Italian Embassy and the Central Customs office. Local media reports indicate that the attack was an assassination attempt against military intelligence chief Ali Sayani, who was reportedly traveling in the vehicle. Sayani's guards reportedly threw the grenade outside of the car before it detonated. One bystander was killed in the explosion, and reports indicate that the attacker was wounded. Security forces discovered firearms and additional hand grenades in a bag that the attacker was carrying. Authorities are investigating the incident.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 4/26/2005

Petronas

05-09-2005, 06:16 PM

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This information is current as of today, Mon May 09 15:11:33 2005.

YEMEN
May 06, 2005
This Travel Warning is being issued to warn U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel to Yemen due to the high security threat, even though the authorized departure for non-emergency personnel and family members of U.S. Embassy personnel has been lifted. This supersedes the Travel Warning for Yemen issued April 8, 2005.

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel to Yemen. The security threat to all U.S. citizens in Yemen remains high due to terrorist activities in Yemen. The Department continues to be concerned about possible attacks by extremist individuals or groups against U.S. citizens, facilities, businesses and perceived interests. From time to time the Embassy may temporarily close or suspend public services for security reasons. Emergency assistance to U.S. citizens during non-business hours (or when public access is restricted) is available through Embassy duty personnel.

U.S. citizens in Yemen should exercise caution and take prudent measures to maintain their security. Maintain a high level of vigilance, avoid crowds and demonstrations, keep a low profile, vary times and routes for all travel, and ensure travel documents are current. U.S. citizens who remain in or travel to Yemen despite this Travel Warning should register at the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa and enroll in the warden system (emergency alert network) in order to obtain updated information on travel and security in Yemen. This can be done online at https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs.

The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa advises American citizens in Yemen to exercise particular caution at locations frequented by foreigners country-wide and at restaurants and hotels frequented by expatriates. Americans who believe they are being followed or threatened while driving in urban centers should proceed as quickly as possible to the nearest police station or major intersection and request assistance from the officers in the blue-and-white police cars stationed there. Occasionally, U.S. Government personnel in Yemen may be prohibited from traveling to sections of Sanaa or other parts of Yemen. The Yemeni government also restricts travel to specified areas by U.S. citizens and other Westerners from time to time. Travelers should be in contact with the Embassy for up-to-date information on such restrictions.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_936.html

Petronas

05-09-2005, 06:17 PM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 7 May 2005, two unidentified assailants threw two grenades at a bus of the Yemeni Air Defense Academy. The incident occurred in the western part of the capital city of Sanaa. Five soldiers who were riding in the bus stained injuries. This was the second incident of its kind in Sanaa since 25 April 2005, when an assailant threw a grenade at the vehicle of a senior military intelligence official. Suspicion for the attacks has fallen on militants form the Zaidi community, who are engaged in clashes with security forces in northwestern Yemen.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 5/9/2005

Petronas

05-14-2005, 12:38 AM

Yemeni President to Pardon Leaders of Northern Rebellion
Saturday, 14, May, 2005 (05, Rabi` al-Thani, 1426)

SANAA, 14 May 2005 — President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to pardon Shiite scholar Badruddin Al-Houthi and others accused of leading last month’s anti-government rebellion in northern Yemen, official sources said yesterday. Government officials told Arab News that Saleh met on Thursday with tribal dignitaries who handed him a letter from Al-Houthi, in which he asked for pardon and agreed to halt fighting in the northwestern Saada province. The officials said Saleh gave the tribal leaders a positive response and asked them to continue their mediation efforts. They said Saleh would officially announce the pardon today at a meeting with senior ulema, MPs and members of the consultative council.

Al-Houthi’s call for pardon came after the authorities claimed they had put down the revolt that left some 280 people dead on both sides. Presidential sources quoted the letter as saying that the rebels were surprised by the launch of the assault in April, which they described as “unjustifiable ... as we have never denied the presidential authority. As citizens, we ask you to bring to an end the injustice committed against us. If this is done, we are prepared to present ourselves (to the authorities) at any moment,” the letter said. The presidential sources said that Saleh had “agreed to end action against these elements so that they can go back to their region in safety and renounce their sins.”

Authorities announced last month that they had put down the uprising in Saada but that leaders of the “sedition” were still on the run. The fighting last month followed another uprising led by Al-Houthi’s son, Hussein, a radical preacher killed by the army last September after leading a three-month revolt in which more than 400 people were killed.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=63718&d=14&m=5&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World%22

Petronas

05-14-2005, 12:45 AM

Yemen arrests 21 rebels for plotting killings
Wed May 11, 2005 4:47 PM ET

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen has arrested 21 rebels on suspicion of hurling hand grenades at state forces and planning to assassinate political and military officials, the official Saba news agency said on Wednesday. It quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying the men had been arrested over the past few days and that investigations showed they were supporters of Sheikh Badr el-Deen al-Houthi, the father of slain Shi'ite rebel cleric Hussein al-Houthi.

"They were planning to assassinate political, military and security figures and to target some vital installations," the Interior Ministry official said. "The group had hurled hand grenades in several public places and at the cars of Defense Ministry forces ... which led to the death of two civilians and wounded 26 people," he said, adding that police had seized weapons and explosives.

Authorities have blamed similar attacks in the capital Sanaa over the past few weeks on rebel supporters of Hussein al-Houthi, who was killed last September along with at least 200 rebels after two months of fighting with state troops. At least 170 rebels and members of the security forces were killed in violence that erupted in north Yemen on March 19. Sanaa blamed Houthi's father for the new round of fighting.

Yemen says Houthi's group is trying to install Shi'ite religious rule, and preaches violence against the United States and Israel at mosques. The group is not linked to al Qaeda. Yemen has joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It has cracked down on al Qaeda-linked militants following attacks at home, including the bombing of an American warship, the Cole, in 2000 and an attack on the French supertanker Limburg in 2002.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-05-11T204653Z_01_N11216472_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-YEMEN-REBELS-DC.XML

Petronas

05-30-2005, 11:50 AM

Yemen: al-Qaeda in Broad Daylight
May 26, 2005

Recent public statements about Yemen paint a dire picture. Ayatollah al-Sistani and the religious establishment in Najaf, Iraq said there is a "brutal massacre" of Shiites going on. The defecting Yemeni Ambassador has stated that high ranking members of the Yemeni government and military are affiliated with al-Qaeda. Putting together the massacre with the al-Qaeda, it's like another 9/11 unfolding slowly in the mountains and cities of Yemen.

The Yemeni Ambassador to Syria, Ahmed Abdullah al-Hasani, is attempting to defect to the UK. He says that members of Al-Qaeda are in the highest ranks of Yemen's military and security forces. Al-Hasani says that it is very likely that President Ali Abdullah Saleh "knew in advance of the Cole explosion" which killed 17 U.S. servicemen. Indeed, Freedom House in 2003 reported that Saleh refused to even investigate the Cole bombing until the United States threatened military action. Also in 2003, al-Qaeda praised President Saleh as the only Arab and Muslim leader who is not an agent for the West or the East.

Currently President Saleh is refusing to act against terrorist financing, probably earning him more praise. Only one bank account in Yemen was frozen in response to a 2003 UN Security Council Sanctions Committee directive to freeze 144 terrorist affiliated accounts of persons, companies, and organizations. The other 143 terrorist associated bank accounts in Yemen remain fully functional. In 2004, the UN Sanctions Committee list of al-Qaeda owned Yemeni bank accounts was not even issued by the Yemeni government to Yemeni banks.

Next is Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, President Saleh's half-brother. He is currently a prominent military commander in Yemen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar was an ally of Osama Bin Laden and helped him to recruit Yemenis to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan reports indicate. Later these fighters set up terrorist training camps in Yemen.

Ambassador al-Hasani says that Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar was complicit in the kidnapping of 16 western tourists in December 1998. "Two days before the killings, members of the terrorist group were in al-Ahmar's house in Sana'a," al-Hasani said. "They were also in telephone contact with Sana'a just before the shootings." Three British citizens and one Australian were killed as a result of the kidnapping.

Yemen's illicit gun trade is thought to be controlled primarily by military officers, with weapons imported legally for the purpose of supplying the army. In 2002, the U.S. military seized and released a Yemeni ship containing North Korean scud missiles, conventional warheads, and nitric acid. The North Korean Foreign Trade Minister is scheduled for an official visit to Yemen at the end of June, 2005. Yemen is noted by Israeli intelligence as one of the chief suppliers of weapons to Palestinian insurgents in Gaza. "The weapons are smuggled by private gangs but with full knowledge of the authorities of these countries," an Israeli military source said. "There's no secret here." Prince Mohammed bin Nasser bin Abdul-Aziz, said in 2003 that Saudi authorities captured Yemeni arms smugglers "on an hourly basis." The Yemeni gun running operation has many endpoints.

Then there is Zindani. Open source intelligence analysis from Power and Interest News Report describes Sheik Zindani as Osama bin Laden's personal mentor. Zindani was a key recruiter in Yemen during the Afghan war against the Soviets. Currently Zindani is the leader of the radical faction of Islah, the Islamic reform party. He is well known for his fiery sermons against the United States. Zindani is also a prominent businessman in Yemen.

In 2004, the U.S. Treasury designated Zindani as a "Major Terrorist" for his active support of al-Qaeda. Zindani, according to the U.S. government, influences and supports "many terrorist causes." He is also noted as a contact for Ansar al-Islam, the terrorist group which contains the faction Ansar al-Sunna operating in Iraq. Ansar al-Sunna has claimed responsibility for the beheading of 12 Nepalese hostages and for the explosion at a U.S. base in Mosel, Iraq which resulted in the deaths of 22 people with 60 more injured.

The Iraqi religious scholars' statement about internal events in Yemen describes a widespread attack, a kind of jihad, on the Shiites: "What happened in Yemen during the recent months, such as official resolutions, the economic blockade several areas, and the continuous acts of killings, arrests, oppression and chasing, reveal only a part of the concealed picture of reality in Yemen." Shia sermons are banned. Shia religious literature confiscated. Shia religious schools are closing. Their teachings have been termed "blasphemous." There are ongoing mass arrests by village, and several thousand men are trapped in the gulag of hellish Yemeni prisons incommunicado, without charges. Their families left without financial support.

And then there is Sa'ada. Chasing a few hundred followers of slain "rebel" cleric, Hussein al-Houthi, the Yemeni military has turned Sa'ada, a Shia region, into a place of blood and tragedy. One mother describes the conditions: "Sa'ada now is being subjected to ethnic cleansing without any reason. We are starving and thirsty because we cannot get out of our houses; every one who gets out of the house will be killed. Our neighbor's house was demolished by a missile. Two families were in the house. All of them were killed."

"I am in the ninth grade" a girl in Sa'ada relates. "I was in school when they started shooting. I saw the girls of 7 to 15 years crying because they were frightened, scared. The teachers called the fathers to come and get their daughters from the school, but they could not because of [gun]fire shooting. Even the school was targeted by tanks." The Iraqi religious leaders have labeled the conditions in Sa'ada as "genocide."

But the jihad in Yemen today, like any good jihad, also targets democratic reformers, journalists, secularists, and socialists. Within the last few weeks, the Shia-led Popular Forces Union Party headquarters was stormed. The Secretary General of the party, Rashad Ali Salem, was held in the building for days. Abdul Mohsen, a founder of a democratic reform movement, was arrested and after days finally charged with drunk driving. The Socialists party headquarters was bombed. The computers for the Popular Forces newspaper were confiscated. And a member of the Popular Forces Union party was kidnapped. Yemeni security forces made no attempt to recover him and have taken no action against his kidnappers since his release.

It is both a civil jihad and a bloody jihad. The Yemeni Socialist Party has termed the severe attack on opposition parties as "political terrorism." The arbitrary arrests continue daily, dead bodies are burned and dragged behind government vehicles, and the bombing of villages goes on. It is an al-Qaeda jihad in broad daylight.

http://www.religionjournal.com/showarticle.asp?id=2508

Petronas

06-11-2005, 12:21 AM

Odd story... What was he doing there? The area he traveled through is full of Al Qaeda types and bandits.

U.S. national reportedly arrested in Yemen
June 07, 2005

Sanaa, Yemen, Jun. 7 (UPI) -- Yemeni authorities arrested a U.S. national in western Yemen after he raised police suspicion by traveling on a motorcycle without a license plate. The opposition Yemeni Tagamoo for Reforms Party said on its Web Site Tuesday that the American traveler was seized in the province of Hadida on the Red Sea last Sunday and handed over to the intelligence department for investigation. "The American man, who spoke fluent Arabic, was arrested while touring the city of Hadida on the motorcycle on which he traveled all the way from Sanaa," the Web site said. It said the man was transported to the Yemeni capital for further interrogation. There was no comment on the report from the U.S. Embassy.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050607-073909-1090r.htm

Casey

06-15-2005, 05:34 AM

Al-Qaeda suspects await July verdict
By Observer Staff
Jun 14, 2005 - Vol. VIII Issue 23

SANA’A - The court trying eight Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen for allegedly plotting attacks on Western targets announced that it would issue its verdict on July 11.

The court held its ninth and final hearing yesterday in the trial of an Iraqi, two Syrians and five Yemenis, attended by three representatives of the US Department of Justice.

In his summing-up, prosecutor Khaled Al-Mawri said the defendants posed a “threat to society” and asked the court to impose the maximum sentences of between ten and 15 years in jail. Muhammad Al-Ezzani, defending six of the suspects, requested his clients’ acquittal on the grounds that their arrests illegal. He said the defendants were detained by the country’s Political Security office far beyond legal time periods. He also argued that there was “no solid evidence” to convict the defendants.

The eight men were charged with planning to attack the British and Italian embassies and the French Cultural Center in Sana’a.

Prosecutors have submitted documents seized by police showing that the group had also planned to attack military bases in Saudi Arabia, as well as US civilians, Western companies, restaurants and schools in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2005
Yemen Observer Newspaper
http://www.yobserver.com/news_7180.php

Petronas

06-21-2005, 01:14 AM

Yemeni appeal court acquits 11 of terror charges
18 June 2005

SANA - A Yemeni appeal court on Saturday confirmed a lower court verdict acquitting 11 Islamic militants of plotting terror attacks and upheld convictions against five of them for forging travel documents. Presiding judge of the Sana Court of Appeals Saeed al-Qataa ordered the immediate release of the 11 defendants, saying the five men convicted of falsifying documents had served enough jail periods in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The defendants, standing behind bars, and their relatives in the courtroom shouted “Allahu-Akbar” (God is Great) as the judge pronounced the verdict. Six of the defendants had been handed over to Yemen by Saudi Arabia. The men, aged between 24 and 35, had originally been charged with forming an armed group to carry out attacks in Yemen and abroad. Other charges included forging documents, possession of weapons and explosives.

A state security court cleared the 11 suspects of terror charges on March 21. Defence lawyers have argued that the case was based on weak charges. Prosecutors have told the court the defendants had tried to join militants battling US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. All the men pleaded not guilty, saying that they were even not acquainted with each other.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/June/middleeast_June507.xml&section=middleeast&col=

Petronas

06-23-2005, 03:58 AM

Yemeni MP Shot Dead

SANAA, 23 June 2005 — A lawmaker from Yemen’s ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party was shot dead in Sanaa late Tuesday, party sources said yesterday. Muhammad Mujahid Shammar was heading home when unidentified armed men opened fire at his car in the diplomatic neighborhood of Hadda in the capital’s south, a GPC website said. The legislator was critically injured in the attack and died later in the hospital. Two suspects were reportedly arrested after the overnight shooting.

Motives behind the attack were not immediately known, but party officials ruled out suggestions that the attack was politically motivated. The slain MP was a well-known businessman who owns the Shammar Trading Group that runs a chain of hotels and stores in Yemen.

In another incident, Yemeni police yesterday arrested a suspect following a blast that destroyed a car and injured three passers-by in Sanaa late Tuesday, police sources said. The explosion occurred around 10:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) Tuesday near the capital’s university compound. Police sources said the attacker placed a bomb under the car. He had been in dispute with the owner.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/23%20n/Yemeni%20MP%20Shot%20Dead.htm

Petronas

11-24-2005, 12:03 AM

YEMEN: POLICE DISMANTLE CELL LED BY KUWAITI SHEIKH
Sanaa, 23 Nov.

The Yemeni security services have dismantled an integralist Islamic cell close to the al-Qaeda network and led by a Kuwaiti sheikh who was also the group's spiritual leader. The Saudi newspaper al-Watan reported that the group was formed by 12 Yemenis who had sworn eternal loyalty to the sheikh, Hasan bin Musa al-Hidi. The cell is said to have mostly issued warnings and threats to the representatives of institutions and the heads of Arab states. From a religious point of view, the group - which was broken up on Tuesday - had no links with the unlicensed schools in the country which the government is trying to crack down on, but were very interested in politics, and events in Afghanistan in particular, the newspaper said.

Al-Hidi has written several books of a fundamentalist nature, but the police have been unable to establish if he is currently in Yemen or Kuwait, as he escaped shortly before his followers were arrested. Before al-Hidi, the Yemeni police dismantled the extremist Shiite group of the late radical leader and former MP Hussein al-Houthi, who led an uprising against the government in summer last year which left hundreds dead, and several groups linked to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, whose father was of Yemeni descent.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.232218022&par=0

Petronas

11-28-2005, 11:47 AM

Yemen executes Muslim cleric
Sunday 27 November 2005, 14:18 Makka Time, 11:18 GMT

A hardline Muslim cleric has been executed by firing squad in Yemen after being convicted of the murder three years ago of an official in the opposition socialist party. Ali Ahmed Jarallah was executed on Sunday in the courtyard of the main Sanaa prison in the presence of his family, judges and lawyers, judicial sources said, after President Ali Abdallah Saleh upheld the death penalty against him. Jarallah, an imam or prayer leader at a mosque in Sanaa, was convicted of the murder in 2002 of Jarallah Omar, the deputy leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party, and his sentence was upheld by an appeals court in April.

Jarallah said in a confession in July 2003 that he had acted alone in shooting Omar at a party conference in Sanaa the previous year. He claimed that the killing was part of a jihad, or holy war, against converts to Christianity and infidels.

Six other people were jailed for between three and 10 years for belonging to a gang that the cleric allegedly created to murder socialists, Arab nationalists and converts to Christianity.

Jarallah had been a member of Yemen's Islamist Al-Islah Party, but quit the movement shortly before the killing, complaining that it had gone soft on Westerners and minority Islamic sects. He was accused by the court of using his mosque to recruit youths for attacks and of "sowing sedition" in Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The death sentence against him was carried out four years after the execution in 2001 of Abul Hassan al-Mezar, the head an extremist group in south Yemen who was convicted of murdering four tourists in 1998. The Socialist party governed southern Yemen before it was unified with the north in 1990.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7E5533ED-9786-4B40-830E-EC5DF52177D0.htm

Petronas

12-01-2005, 10:22 AM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 30 November 2005, Yemeni army tanks reportedly attacked Shiite rebel strongholds, killing at least 15 supporters of cleric Hussein al-Houthi near the northern province of Saada. Al-Houthi's group, which recently agreed to stop fighting when Yemen's president ordered an amnesty in September for all its jailed supporters, allegedly wants to install clerical rule and preaches violence against the United States and Israel. Clashes between Yemeni security forces and Shiite rebels have intensified in recent weeks. Fierce fighting first broke out in 2004 in northern Yemen, leading to the deaths of more than 200 rebels, and in March 2005, a new round of clashes erupted in which 170 rebels and security forces were killed.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/30/2005

Vancouver

12-02-2005, 08:55 PM

On 30 November 2005, Yemeni army tanks reportedly attacked Shiite rebel strongholds, killing at least 15 supporters of cleric Hussein al-Houthi near the northern province of Saada.Here's some background on the Shiites around Saada:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/shabab-al-moumineen.htm

On the Sunni side, cult leader and Qaeda recruiter Abdulmajid al-Zindani has rebuilt his "It Is Truth" website, with an English section; it's now in Yemen:
http://www.truth.org.ye/

1001

02-04-2006, 08:26 AM

Al-Qaida in Yemeni jail break

Saturday 04 February 2006, 2:44 Makka Time, 23:44 GMT

The men were charged last year on various terrorism charges

A group of 23 convicted al-Qaida members have escaped from a prison in the capital of Yemen.

The men were sentenced last year on various charges of terrorism, an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

They were being held at a detention centre for military intelligence in Sanaa.

No further details were available.

The escape on Friday came a day before the trial of Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, an al-Qaida suspect, and 14 others charged with involvement in operations in Yemen, particularly the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Al-Ahdal is suspected of*planning the Cole bombing, which killed 17 US sailors, and the bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen's coast in 2002, which killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Adan.

AP

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D1AB3A2B-9D6E-49AE-9995-C25EF252A46A.htm

NYer

02-06-2006, 07:52 AM

http://www.uyseg.org/colour/activity/act_01/01_images/sieve.gif

Yemeni Prisons...

Petronas

02-19-2006, 12:19 PM

Seven of 23 convicted al Qaeda terrorists who tunneled their way out of Yemen prison are captured
February 19, 2006, 5:26 PM (GMT+02:00)

They include Jamal Badawi, mastermind of the Oct. 12 2000 bombing attack on the USS Cole in which 17 US sailors perished. When a Yemeni force picked the escapees up in desolate Hadhramauth, ancestral homeland of their master, Osama bin Laden, it came upon a new 14-man al Qaeda network, geared ready in bomb vests for attacks on Western targets in Yemen.

http://www.debka.com/

Petronas

02-25-2006, 11:22 AM

U.S. seeks Zandani's extradition from Yemen
SANAA, Yemen, Feb. 23 (UPI)

Washington has officially requested Yemen to hand over a senior member of an Islamist opposition party included on a U.N. list of suspects financing terrorism. The pro-government daily September 26 said Thursday Washington wants Sheikh Abdel Majid Zandani, politburo chief of the opposition Reform Party, to be deported in line with U.N. resolutions on combating international terrorism. It said the U.S. presented a harsh protest to the Yemeni government for including Zandani in the official delegation led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the Organization of Islamic Conference summit in Saudi Arabia last year.

"The protest was included in a letter by U.S. President George Bush to President Saleh," the paper said. In the letter, Bush said Zandani is on a U.N. list of persons accused of financing terrorism and should be barred from traveling. He said, moreover, that including him in an official delegation contradicts U.N. resolutions and harms bilateral efforts and partnership in combating terrorism. The paper said "Washington made an official request to arrest Sheikh Zandani, to freeze his assets and bar him from leaving the country in view of the accusations made against him in financing terrorism."

Yemen retorted by asking Washington for clear incriminating evidence against Zandani to be able to take legal measures against him in accord with Yemeni laws. Zandani's Reform Party rejected last month what it called "void accusations" which are being propagated by the United States against its politburo chief, and asked that his name be removed from the U.N. list of suspected terror financiers.

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060223-083320-4902r

Casey

02-27-2006, 08:23 AM

Three Al-Qaeda fugitives surrender after jailbreak
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yemen Times Staff

SANA’A, Feb. 26 — Three of 23 suspected Al-Qaeda militants who escaped from a prison in Yemen early this month have surrendered and contacts are under way with other prisoners to persuade them to follow suit. President Ali Abdullah Saleh in an interview published yesterday in the Saudi-owned Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat newspaper said that security forces were in contact with the other fugitives and negotiating their surrender. However, he did not give any details about the escapees that had surrendered.

“There are contacts with the escapees, and some of them surrendered to security authorities,”

“So far three (have turned themselves in), and there are contacts with the remainder, who are inside (the country). They have not left Yemen,” he added.

The President confirmed that the fugitives want to give themselves up and most of them have finished the majority of their sentence already. The Yemeni government has offered a reward of more than 25,000 dollars for information that could lead to the capture of any of the suspected Al-Qaeda militants who broke out of a Sana’a prison on Feb. 3, embarrassing the authorities and angering the United States.

The fugitives include the leaders of the 2000 bombing of the U.S. warship Cole and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg, as well as a Yemeni-American wanted by the United States.

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=924&p=front&a=4

Petronas

04-17-2006, 11:06 AM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): Two Shiite rebels from the minority Zaidi community and one Yemeni police officer were killed on 14 April 2006 during a shootout outside a mosque in Yemen’s Amran province, located approximately 45 mi/70 km north of Sanaa. At least four additional rebels and five police officers were wounded during the incident. Government sources stated that the rebels -- who are believed to be supporters of the slain anti-U.S. Shiite Muslim cleric Hussein al-Houthi -- attacked the mosque because they were opposed to its state-appointed Imam from Egypt and his moderate stance. The Zaidis are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and are dominant in northwestern Yemen, but form a minority in the mainly Sunni country. Yemen’s president has accused Zaidi rebels of seeking to overthrow his republican regime.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

Petronas

09-15-2006, 08:23 PM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): At approximately 0530 local time on 15 September 2006, Yemeni security forces foiled two suicide bombing attacks on two oil and gas facilities; one in Maarib -- a lawless tribal area in the desert east of Sanaa, the capital -- and one on a Canadian-run terminal in the southeastern port of Dhabba in the Gulf of Aden. According to preliminary reports, in each case a booby-trapped car exploded before reaching its intended target after coming under fire from security forces and soldiers. Four bombers and a guard were killed in the attacks, but there was no damage to the facilities. The reports added that the bombers in the first attack were disguised; one as a military officer and the other was wearing the uniform of workers at the terminal. No one has claimed responsibility for this attack, which came just days after Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned in a video message coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the 11 September attacks on the United States that the Gulf and Israel would be the next targets of al-Qaeda, and which preceded Yemen's 20 September presidential and local polls.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

Petronas

09-15-2006, 11:15 PM

Suicide bombers foiled in Yemen attack
Fri Sep 15, 4:53 PM ET

Authorities foiled an attempt by suicide bombers to blow up two oil installations with explosives-laden cars Friday, days after al-Qaida threatened to strike facilities in the Persian Gulf. The four attackers and a guard were killed. The violence coincided with an election campaign in which President Ali Abdullah Saleh, facing his first real challenge since he became head of state in 1978, has been reaching out to the country's most strident Islamic movement.

No group claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks. But Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal said "investigators have uncovered all the details related to the two operations and the identity of the perpetrators," according to the official news agency. He did not elaborate, but said work at the oil installations was proceeding normally.

There have been fears of an al-Qaida attack since 23 members of the terror network tunneled out of a Yemeni jail in February with help from prison guards. Fourteen prisoners remain at large. Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaida has been blamed for two attacks on ships off Yemen — the bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in 2000 and the attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later. After the Cole bombing and the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the West began pressuring Yemen to join the war against terror. Saleh launched several crackdowns against extremists, winning praise from the United States.

Analysts say Friday's violence has al-Qaida's fingerprints, especially since it came after a videotape aired Monday of the network's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, threatening attacks on the Gulf and on facilities he blamed for stealing Muslim oil. The four bombers struck in two groups during shift changes at the facilities.

In the first attack, two suicide bombers drove "at great speed" toward the Dubba Port at 5:15 a.m. in an attempt to blow up storage tanks filled with "a huge amount of oil," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The driver of the first car wore a uniform similar to those of staff at the facility, and the second driver was in a military uniform, the statement said.

It said guards "managed to blow up the rigged cars before they reached their targets." A security guard was killed while "remains of the two terrorist attackers were strewn all over the place," the statement said. Shrapnel from the cars started a small fire in one storage tank, but it was quickly put out, it said.

At 5:50 a.m, security guards at a refinery in Mareb blew up two white cars loaded with explosives. "They were driven by other suicide bomber terrorists who tried to break into (the facility)," the Interior Ministry statement said. While one vehicle was stopped outside, the other got through the gates and sped 50 yards into the compound, security officials said.

Guards opened fire and detonated it about 100 yards from pipelines containing more than 15,000 cubic feet of gas as well as a control room for pipelines bringing in crude oil, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give the information to the media. The two attackers were killed and no one else was hurt in the Mareb attack, it said.

The Interior Ministry said violence and threats would not block Yemen's "persistent efforts to fight terrorism and the terrorist elements of darkness." It said an inquiry was under way to determine the identity of the "terrorist elements" behind the attacks.

Al-Qaida has threatened repeatedly to hit oil infrastructure, but its only major attempt was in February on Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq oil processing plant, the largest such facility in the world. In that case, bombers in explosives-laden cars were stopped at the gates in a gunbattle with guards.

Researcher Abdul-Bari al-Taher said for the anti-terrorism campaign to succeed, Yemen needs to deal more firmly with the militants. For instance, a senior al-Qaida operative was sentenced in May to only three years and one month in prison for involvement in the attack on the French tanker. In July, 19 alleged al-Qaida members were acquitted of plotting to assassinate Westerners, and the judge exonerated some of fighting U.S. troops in Iraq.

The ruling party's rapprochement with the hard-line Salafi movement will make extremists bolder, said al-Taher, a specialist in Islamic groups with the Yemeni Center for Studies and Research, an independent research institution. The ruling General People's Congress Party turned to the Salafis after losing the support of the powerful Islah Party ahead of Wednesday's presidential election.

Senior Salafi leader Abul-Hasan al-Maribi appeared at an election rally in Mareb at which President Saleh spoke. Al-Maribi denounced the election, saying Saleh should not be challenged as ruler — a common belief among some extremists. "Playing the religious card is dangerous and the government should stop doing it," al-Taher said.

The regime's ties to Islamists date to the 1980s, and they were strengthened during the 1994 civil war when Islamic fighters — many of whom had fought the Soviets in Afghanistan — sided with Saleh's northern government against secessionists in the secular south. After the war, the Muslim groups demanded rewards from Saleh's government. It obliged, appointing militants or their supporters to key positions in the army, police and administration.

Saleh faces four opponents Wednesday. The most serious challenger is Faisal bin Shamlan, who is backed by five opposition parties and has spoken out against al-Qaida and corruption.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_mi_ea/yemen_attack

Petronas

09-20-2006, 11:48 PM

Yemen arrests 'terrorist' linked to top presidential rival
19-09-2006 / 14:25

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, facing the most serious challenge to his 28-year rule, has announced the arrest of a "terrorist" -- allegedly linked to his main election rival and to Osama bin Laden -- accused of plotting attacks against US interests.

"We have arrested a major terrorist who was planning operations against American installations and the Movenpick hotel," Saleh said at a press conference Tuesday, thhe eve of a presidential election marked by persistent Islamist and tribal unrest in the Middle East's poorest country. He said the suspect was a bodygard for Faisal bin Shamlan, a former oil minister who is his main challenger in Wednesday's five-way presidential race, only the second such election since north and south Yemen unified in 1990.

Saleh's private secretary Abdo Burji said the suspect, Hussein al-Jerdani, was arrested on Sunday and had close links with the Al-Qaeda terror chief, whose ancestral homeland is Yemen. "He was a companion of Osama bin Laden and is the owner of a house rented to a cell which recently tried to launch attacks against oil installations in Yemen," Burji added.

Four bombers and a security guard were killed Friday when Yemeni security forces foiled twin suicide bombings against an oil refinery and a Canadian-run terminal.

Nearly 90,000 police and troops are to deploy for Wednesday's presidential and municipal elections in Yemen, where security remains key after deadly Al-Qaeda attacks on the American destroyer USS Cole and the French oil tanker Limburg. With scores already dead during the election campaign, killed in stampedes during Saleh campaign rallies, and four French hostages still in the hands of tribal kidnappers in the south, the authorities are taking no chances.

Saleh said he was confident that the four Frenchmen -- seized on September 10 by tribesmen demanding the release of relatives -- would be freed soon. "They will come out today or tomorrow," he said initially before clarifying that it might not be until the end of the week.

The government also announced Saturday the arrest of four Yemenis linked to Al-Qaeda who it said were planning attacks on Sanaa. Bin Laden's right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri had warned that the Gulf and Israel would be Al-Qaeda's next targets, in a video message coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. Since then, Sanaa has worked with Washington to clamp down on suspected Al-Qaeda sympathisers.

Saleh, who first took office as leader of the then North Yemen in 1978 and has survived a 1994 civil war with the former communist south and Al-Qaeda-inspired violence, now faces a challenger backed by both Islamists and former communists. The 64-year-old father-of-seven is being taken on by bin Shamlan, 72, in a test of Washington's efforts to export democracy to the Middle East.

"These elections are different -- never before has the contest been so fierce," said Sanaa University political analyst Mohammed al-Sabri. Sabri said that at the very least the election should put paid to any ambition Saleh had to groom his son Ahmed to succeed him, as the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad did his son Bashar.

Bin Shamlan, who is supported by both the Islamist Islah (Yemeni Reform Movement) and the southern-based ex-communist Yemen Socialist Party, has made the "installation of a parliamentary democracy that will allow a peaceful transition of power" the centrepiece of his political platform.

Tribal loyalties retain enormous influence in Yemen -- one of the world's poorest countries despite its proximity to oil-rich Saudi Arabia -- where the central government's writ barely runs to the countryside and the tribes regularly kidnap outsiders in a bid to leverage concessions.

The spokesman of the opposition umbrella group sponsoring bin Shamlan warned the veteran president might yet be tempted to cheat if the voters turned against him. "Saleh has been beaten at his own game," said Common Forum spokesman Ali al-Sarari. "He did not expect that the opposition would pose such a challenge or that there would be so many people looking for change. He won't tolerate an opposition victory ... and may even try to falsify the results."

http://www.wanadoo.jo/factu.php?articleId=1782806

Petronas

10-29-2006, 10:35 AM

A further development in a very dangerous trend. Don't expect all of the perpetrators of the next 9/11 to be Saudis.
four of the smugglers held Australian passports while a fifth was a Danish national ... all of the eight suspects had converted to Islam earlier this yearYemen says arrests 8 Qaeda-linked arms smugglers
Oct 29, 2006

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni forces have arrested eight foreigners with suspected links to al Qaeda who were smuggling weapons from Yemen to Somalia, a senior Interior Ministry official said on Sunday. The official said four of the smugglers held Australian passports while a fifth was a Danish national, but gave no details on the identities of the other three.

"The eight foreigners were arrested because they smuggled weapons to Somalia from Yemen," the official said in a statement posted on the state-run news agency Saba. "Preliminary investigations indicate that they are members of al Qaeda."

Government sources in the Yemeni capital told Reuters that all of the eight suspects had converted to Islam earlier this year and received religious instruction in Yemen. Last month, Yemen said it had broken up an al Qaeda-linked cell that was behind foiled attacks on oil and gas installations.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2613820

Petronas

11-06-2006, 06:35 PM

Yemen Court Acquits 5 Saudis
Sunday, 5, November, 2006 (14, Shawwal, 1427)

SANAA, 5 November 2006 — A Yemeni appeals court yesterday upheld the acquittal by a lower court of 19 men, including five Saudis, of planning attacks against Americans in Yemen, citing lack of evidence. The court however convicted four Yemenis and two Saudis of forging ID documents and gave them prison terms of two to three years.

A state security court threw out the charges against the 19 men on July 8, saying the prosecution had failed to prove its case that the men had formed an armed gang to attack US citizens in Yemen.

Among those convicted of forgery was the alleged leader of the group, Ali Abdullah Hussein Al-Harthi, a 26-year-old Yemeni. He received a three-year jail term.

Saudis Muhsin Mubarak ibn Obaid, 19, and Muhammad Falah Al-Qahtani, 22, were ordered released as they have already spent nearly two years in detention. The other three Saudis — Saad Abdul-Ghani Al-Bloushi, 26, Muhammad Musaifir Al-Quraishi, 27, and Majid Ahmad Al-Zahrani, 30 — were acquitted of all charges and ordered released.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=83305&d=5&m=11&y=2006

Petronas

11-07-2006, 02:56 PM

Yemen's Qaeda wing warns U.S. allies of more attacks
Nov 7, 2006

Al Qaeda's Yemen wing claimed responsibility for September 15 attacks on Yemeni oil facilities and vowed more strikes against the United States and its allies. "Let the Americans and their allies among the worshippers of the cross and their apostate aides … know that these operations are only the first spark and that what is coming is more severe and bitter," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet. The authenticity of the statement posted on a Web site used by Islamist militant groups could not be verified.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2635251

Vancouver

11-07-2006, 03:49 PM

Yemen's Qaeda wing warns U.S. allies of more attacks
Nov 7, 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2635251
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showpost.php?p=866755&postcount=1
:cool:
Here's the maybe-genuine claim on the sometimes quite genuine Ana al-Muslim forum:
http://www.muslm.net/vb/showthread.php?t=185374
It's an interesting piece. It names the bombers, not all of whom are Yemeni. Why it's dated more than 3 weeks ago, I don't know. It went on the forum today.

edit: I mean, it's maybe genuine in the sense that it came from somebody who was involved. His account of what happened in the attack is bogus.

Petronas

11-22-2006, 01:03 AM

Al-Qaeda’s number two in Yemen to be freed
By Abdul-Aziz Oudah & Fares Anam
Nov 21, 2006, 10:43

Al-Qaeda’s number two man in Yemen is expected to be released within a month, despite the fact the Criminal Court of Appeals just supported the initial ruling that sentenced Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal Abu Assem to 37 months in jail, said Yemeni authorities. According to the judgment issued by Judge Sa’eed al-Qata’a, insufficient evidence was presented by the prosecution.

The general prosecution accused him of several crimes, including receiving funds from external Al-Qaida members, and financing terrorist operations in Yemen against Western and American interests. But the court accepted the defense of al-Ahdal, who said that the funds he collected from charitable sources were to assist the families of Yemenis who were killed in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the families of the Yemeni prisoners detained in Guantanamo.

In its appeal of the preliminary verdict issued last May, the prosecution demanded that the appellate court not certify the primary verdict and issue the heaviest possible penalties against al-Ahdal, whom they described as one of the most dangerous elements of Al-Qaeda, and the most wanted suspect in several terrorism cases. The court also accused him of being the successor of Ali Sinan al-Harithy for the leadership of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, after al-Harithy’s assassination by a rocket fired from an American unmanned plane in Marib desert.

Washington considers al-Harithy one of the people who attacked the USS Cole in Aden in 2000. However, the court decided that the evidence was not sufficient. The verdict represented a painful blow to the Yemeni security apparatuses, for failing to convince the court with evidence to prove their charges. The security forces arrested al-Ahdal, in the middle of December 2003, in an intelligence operation that lasted several months. During this time, he was pursued until his arrest in a house in Sana’a, while celebrating his wedding.

Al-Ahdal was born in Al-Medina in Saudi Arabia in 1971. He worked in the honey trade, and was an active member of an association of support fighters in Afghanistan and the republics of Caucasus. He was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia in 1999 for 14 months before the Saudi authorities released him and deported him to Yemen. After his arrival in Yemen, he lived in Hodeidah governorate, and traveled to fight in Bosnia and Chechnya, where he injured his left leg, which was amputated from below the knee.

http://www.yobserver.com/article-11245.php

Ono

11-22-2006, 01:13 AM

:mad_08:

Petronas

11-24-2006, 10:32 AM

'Al-Qaida' hits back in Yemen
17/11/06

Four would-be bombers and a security guard died on 15 September as militants driving two explosives-laden vehicles attempted to force their way into two oil refineries at Hadhramout and Marib in eastern Yemen. An internet message posted on 7 November on a website used by militant Islamic groups claimed responsibility for the failed attacks on behalf of a group styling itself "al-Qaida in Yemen." "Those operations were only the first spark, and what is coming shall be harsher and more bitter," the statement warned.

Commentators pointed to the lack of sophistication displayed in the refinery attacks as a sign that the group had been recruiting new members after a mass prison break by al-Qaida inmates in the capital Sana'a on 3 February. Two of the 23 escapees died in the refinery attacks and two prominent members of the group, jailed in connection with the 6 October 2002 al-Qaida attack on the Limburg tanker, were killed a fortnight later in a special forces raid on two houses in the capital.

The US and its European allies have steadily developed their strategic alliance with Yemen in recent years in response to militant attacks and regional and tribal insurgencies. Jamal Amer, editor-in-chief of Yemen's prominent independent newspaper al-Wasat, told ISN Security Watch that "America's relationship with Yemen is more of a security relationship than a political, or other relationship. With regard to US aid, they offer Yemen about US$100 million a year." Amer also said the US "trains many intelligence officers and also trains the Yemeni army and the Republican Guard."

The apparent resurgence of al-Qaida in Yemen in the wake of the prison break reflects the prior successes of the army and intelligence agencies in disrupting the group's cell structure. It also indicates that the organization is comprised of a small core group of insurgents.

Shifting affiliations and associations mark the Islamic militancy in Yemen. Members of the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan were accused of involvement in the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Aden harbor on 12 October 2000, following the execution of their leader El-Hassan El-Mohader in 1999. The Aden-Abyan group had announced its affiliation to both al-Qaida and Islamic Jihad, and members of the group are believed to have since joined al-Qaida.

Jamal al-Badawi, who allegedly planned the Cole attack, was among the al-Qaida escapees, raising fears for the safety of international shipping routes and vessels docking in Aden.

Experts differ widely on the nature of the ties binding the increasing number of groups claiming affiliation to al-Qaida following the destruction of the organization's Afghan bases in 2001. Some envision a coherent global insurgent network, while others see only a nominal connection between groups acting with complete independence.

Al-Qaida in Yemen sought to portray itself as under the direct control of the al-Qaida leadership in claiming the oil refinery attacks. "These operations came in response to directives from our emir Sheikh Osama bin Laden […] in which he ordered Muslims to hit the Western economy and stop the robbing of Muslims' wealth." The reference to bin Laden tapes calling for attacks on oil facilities appears to reflect a lack of direct coordination between al-Qaida in Yemen and bin Laden's coterie.

Al-Qaida has strong roots in Yemen, with bin Laden accused by some experts of personal involvement in the movement's first operation, the bombing of a hotel in Aden on 22 December 1992. "Yemen is a natural hub for al-Qaida. It is not a country that al-Qaida spread into accidentally," Yemen expert Professor Joseph Kostiner from the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv told ISN Security Watch. "So I don't know if you have a weakening or attenuation of al-Qaida and now a re-emergence. I think that they always existed as such […] Whenever they [al-Qaida] can they get stronger and they hit. It [al-Qaida in Yemen] is probably just a matter of a new cell or group of cells that have been able to grow," Kostiner said.

The group identifying itself as al-Qaida in Yemen does appear to cohere as a small, unitary movement that shares a common ideology, worldview and operational style with other elements of al-Qaida.

Yemen's Interior Ministry confirmed on Monday that seven foreigners - a Dane, a Briton, a Somali, three Australians and a European of unknown nationality - arrested in a secret police raid in Sana'a on 17 October, had confessed their involvement in an al-Qaida ring smuggling weapons to Somalia and in fundraising for terror attacks.

Two of the three Australians - Mohammed Ayub and Abdullah Ayub - are sons of the former leader of Jemaah Islamiah in Australia, Abdul Rahim Ayub. The radical Southeast Asian Islamic group is held responsible for a series of bombing attacks on the island of Bali and in Jakarta, and is thought to have close ties to al-Qaida.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) interviewed the mother of the two brothers in the month before their arrest in Sana'a, while Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported that the Ayubs had been linked to a foiled 2005 plan to bomb Sydney's Kings Cross Station.

The interview and subsequent arrests indicate a degree of security coordination between ASIO and Yemen's National Security Agency, established in 2002 to liaise with foreign intelligence services.

If demonstrated in court, the involvement of the Ayubs in al-Qaida weapons smuggling - likely intended for Somalia's Islamic Courts militia - could be seen as proof of ongoing connections and communications between jihadi groups in the Middle East and worldwide. This impression was further bolstered by a UN report released this week that accused Hizbollah of training and arming Islamic Courts fighters.

The controversial head of Sana'a's Al-Iman religious university, Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, denied reports that the three Australian al-Qaida suspects attended his institution, accusing reporters of involvement in "a foreign campaign against [the] university and Yemen." On 24 February 2004, the US Treasury Department branded al-Zindani a "specially designated global terrorist" for his alleged financing of al-Qaida in Yemen, describing the move as a step toward tightening the "financial noose around al-Qaida."

Kostiner believes it is likely that al-Zindani, who was with bin Laden in Afghanistan, still maintains links with the al-Qaida leadership "despite the fact that he is head of the university."

"In my opinion, he wouldn't be able to make official contacts, or meet him [bin Laden], but I'm sure that there are people that are go-betweens between them," he said.

The Yemeni government has refused to take action against the influential cleric, who leads the Salafist movement within the opposition Islah party. "The Yemeni president [Ali Abdullah al-Saleh] a few days ago visited the university and denied the accusation that it was connected to terrorism. [He] said that his presence at the university was evidence that they were not connected to terrorism," Amer related. "Before the [September presidential] election he also found government positions for all of the graduates from al-Iman. But the issue of whether or not al-Iman University supports terrorism is still present," he said.

Islamic extremism and tribal violence in Yemen is fed by the slow pace of civil and political reform and by widespread poverty. Ranked 151st of 177 countries on the UN Human Development Index, Yemen is the poorest Arab state.

"I think Ali Abdullah al-Saleh has been trying to get friendly relations with the United States for years. Because after the fall of the Soviet Union there was no other important force in the region, in his opinion, that could guarantee Yemen's safety and security, even against Saudi Arabia," Kostiner said. "After the hitting of the Cole, he [became] a hatchet-man against terrorism in Yemen. He [Saleh] cannot afford to fully alienate the religious and radical elements in Yemen by embarking on a full alliance with the United States," he added.

Al-Saleh was on hand for the opening of a donor conference in London on Wednesday in which officials from Arab states, the UN, EU and World Bank are expected to pledge up to US$5 billion for poverty relief efforts. Al-Saleh has introduced limited democratic reforms in recent years, winning 77.2 percent in the September presidential election after initially signaling his desire to step down. Opposition parties believe that the president is seeking to secure the succession of his son Ahmed to the premiership.

Amer said the opposition alleged widespread fraud in the presidential poll and "was complaining about the president's use of the state apparatus or abilities [for electoral purposes]. But America was satisfied with the president's stance in fighting terrorism."

The freedom of the judiciary and press remain major issues. Amer was abducted and assaulted on 23 August 2005. "In the case of my kidnapping by armed men who were in an army vehicle, this was not investigated. Also some of my colleagues in journalism have been attacked. I was abducted because of al-Wasat paper's report about government scholarships for poor Yemeni students going to the children of government officials," Amer said.

With the Bush administration pre-occupied with Iraq and quietly ending its drive for the democratization of authoritarian Arab regimes, al-Saleh is unlikely to come under significant pressure to introduce substantial reforms that would break the hold of his General Peoples' Congress (GPC) on power.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=16930

Vancouver

02-03-2007, 02:32 AM

This Yemeni paper (http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1021&p=front&a=3), which doesn't seem particularly pro-government, says 15 Yemeni troops have been killed in the latest round of battles against the al-Houthi Shiite tribe or faction.

IRAN1

02-04-2007, 09:18 AM

Yemen's foreign minister Dr Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has on Thursday made it clear that what the US department of State did for our ambassador to Washington was a provocation rather than summoning regarding what happened to the Jewish community in north of Yemen.

Dr al-Qirbi told almotamar.net the American State Department provoked ambassador Abdulwahaab al-Hijri with regard to what happened to the Jews in Yemen in the events of Saada last January. The Yemeni ambassador to Washington affirmed to the US State Department that the sons of the Jewish community in Yemen are considered as Yemeni citizens the constitution and the law guarantee to them their rights as Yemeni citizens without discrimination.

The foreign minister stressed that the Yemeni ambassador had clarified the facts so that the events cannot be exploited in offending Yemen.

Vancouver

02-06-2007, 06:55 PM

Serious fighting continues, ignored by most Western news wires.
http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1022&p=front&a=1
Al-Jazeera has the story too. They claim 42 Yemeni gov't dead in the last week, and they say:
"These terrorists have bought large quantities of arms, light, medium and heavy, after receiving funds from inside the country and from abroad," Abdul Ghani [of Yemen gov't] said.

This is what I'm interested in -- arms or money sent to the Zaidi sect from outside Yemen. The backers won't be Wahhabi, certainly.

Petronas

02-21-2007, 07:33 PM

90 KIA in the Yemeni Army versus only 10 dead insurgents...

Clashes in Yemen kill more than 100
Mon Feb 19, 10:25 PM ET

Ongoing clashes between the Yemeni army and followers of a Shiite rebel leader in the north of the country have killed more than 100 people in the past five days, military officials said Monday. About 90 of the dead were in the Yemeni army, including six killed on Monday, an army official said.

Government forces have fired artillery bombardments over the areas where followers of Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi are believed to be hiding out in Saada, about 112 miles north of the capital San'a, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Close to 200 army and police officers have been killed in clashes in recent weeks. There are no official statistics on rebels casualties, but tribal officials have estimated that more than 100 have been killed since the clashes broke out in late January.

Last week, members of the Yemen Supreme Defense Council voiced concerns, saying the Shiite rebels were receiving funds and assistance from outside countries, according to one of the council's members. The member, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, did not name the countries. But state-owned newspapers have reported that the government suspects Iran and Libya are backing the rebellion.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the rebels on Monday of being "ignorant forces of darkness who adopted deviant terrorist and racist ideas." They "don't believe in democracy or freedom. They are agents who have sold themselves to harm the nation and its interests," he said, according to the official news agency.

Al-Hawthi denied in an interview with al-Nada, a local independent paper, that his group had Iranian or Libyan links. He accused the government of resorting to violence to end the conflict instead of taking peaceful paths.

The rebels are part of a Shiite Muslim group known as "The Young Faithful Believers" that accuses the government of being corrupt and too close to the West.

Yemen, the ancestral land of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has largely allied itself with the United States in the war on terror. The government has been fighting the rebels since June 2004 when rebel Shiite cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al-Hawthi — the brother of the current leader — led his forces in an uprising. The cleric was killed in clashes with government troops in September 2004. More than 700 officers and police have been killed since then until beginning of the latest round of fighting, which started late last month. The government had accused Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi of sedition, forming an illegal armed group and inciting anti-American sentiment. His loyalists say authorities have tried to silence the cleric's criticism of corruption.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/yemen_rebels

Atlas

02-22-2007, 12:06 AM

The Yemeni army is right up there with the french and italians in terms of competence

Petronas

03-23-2007, 12:05 AM

Yemen on brink of sectarian war
Mar 23, 2007

He heard the military helicopters coming, Dr Ali al-Wadiee told Seattle Times in al-Ruzamat, a small village amid the volcanic mountains of Yemen's remote north, near the border with Saudi Arabia. "There were several loud explosions," he said, but the doctor didn't know how many helicopters dropped their payloads in al-Naqa'ah on the Yemeni side of the border.

In Saada province, 240 kilometers north of the capital Sana'a, nearly 700 people have been killed as fighting reignited in late January between the Yemeni army and a Zaidi Shi'ite insurgent group called Al Shabab Al Moumin (the Youthful Believers) - formed by now-deceased tribal chief Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi - after the rebels threatened to kill members of a small Jewish community in Saada if they did not leave the country within 10 days.

Wadiee was present in a small government medical center with four health workers when more than 100 dead were received in a period of three days. "About 90 of the dead were in the Yemeni army, and the others were in the Shi'ite insurgents," he said. At the outskirts of al-Ruzamat, more than 10km south of al-Naqa'ah, a metal sign hanging from a shiny new chain reads: "Warning: Access to this area is forbidden for security reasons - the Yemeni army."

The current conflict represents the third government crackdown since 2004 in Saada province, where the anti-government Shi'ite insurgency started out as a small domestic protest against Yemeni policy. Rebel clerics have denounced the government's ties with the United States and demanded an end to its gradual shift to Western-style social and democratic reforms.

While government forces seem to have emerged victorious from the latest fighting - they recently crushed the main rebel strongholds in the Razih and al-Shagaf areas of al-Naqa'ah - Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the new leader of this Shi'ite insurgency, threatens to widen the circle of armed confrontations to areas outside Saada. Houthi said his group - hundreds of armed rebels remain unaccounted for - will continue fighting the government if it doesn't cut its alliances with the US and Israel.

The government has received strong US military support to curb terrorism in the region. Al-Thawra, a government-funded newspaper in Sana'a, reported last September 26 that US Ambassador Thomas C Krajeski had declared Washington's support for the Yemeni government in its confrontation with Houthi's insurgency.

The Hezbollah-style rebel group was formed three years ago by Shi'ite cleric Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, who was killed in September 2004 while fighting under the slogan: "God the Greatest ... Death to America and Israel ...Victory for Islam and Muslims."

The government is determined to crush the uprising. But many observers worry that it may not be wholly able to overcome Houthi's group, which aims to install an Iranian-style Islamic theocracy. "They refused all offers by the government to disarm and form a political party to live in peace," said Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor at Sana'a University. "I think the rebels have this time lost all grounds for negotiations with the government."

To isolate the rebels, explained Faqih, Yemeni authorities have blocked communications, including mobile-phone services, in the restive northern province. "But this has not necessarily helped the government as much as it is impossible for the rebels to overthrow the government and install their Islamic law," he said.

Observers are also concerned that hundreds of anti-Western insurgents could strike out at foreigners and Western interests in the country. This month the Interior Ministry temporarily tightened security around foreign embassies against possible terrorist attacks.

"Here in Yemen, tribe, religion and weapons are the most dangerous things in the hands of tribesmen against the government," said Abdul-Elah Haidar, a researcher on terrorism affairs at the Saba News Agency and regular columnist for London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi. "And when a group combines the three, it can easily become a substantial political force."

This escalation of violence has been a frightening setback for the Yemeni government, which had rigidly controlled the threats from al-Qaeda and was beginning to benefit from the cautious return of tourists and foreign investors. Lacking large oil reserves or any modern manufacturing facilities, Yemen is particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The bombing attacks that targeted US- and Canadian-owned oil facilities in the eastern provinces of Marib and Hadarmout last September 15, the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, and the October 2002 bombing of the French supertanker Limberg have cost the government millions of dollars as insurance premiums for ship owners have soared, causing many of them to refuse to dock at Yemen's ports.

This guerrilla style of war and terrorist attacks has frightened off thousands of mainly European tourists who come to admire the country's unique ancient mud-brick cities and amazing landscape.

Most Yemenis believe that Iran backs the Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north of the Sunni-dominated country, pointing out that the minority Zaidi sect makes up about a fifth of Yemen's population.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in January that some countries were supplying Houthi's group with weapons and financial support, but he did not name them. Tariq al-Shami, spokesman for Saleh's ruling party, the General People's Congress (GPC), said Iranian security officials had told Yemen that some Iranian religious institutions were supporting the rebels, but they added that Houthi's group was not backed by Tehran. "There are Iranian religious institutions which are providing support to the Shi'ite insurgency in Yemen," Shami recently posited on the GPC's website.

Last March, Yemen freed more than 600 Shi'ite rebels as part of an amnesty to end two years of clashes that had killed several hundred soldiers and rebels. But "the Houthis have used a period of truce with the state to buy heavy weapons using foreign support money", Shami said.

The clashes in Saada are causing negative consequences at the national level. "Many houses have already been destroyed, students no longer go to school, agricultural farms have been damaged and work has come to a standstill," said Khalid al-Anesi, who runs a non-governmental organization for defending rights and freedoms.

Military sources say Houthi's three-year fight against the government has cost the country an estimated US$800 million, with extensive damage to property.

The government, however, faces other unresolved problems in that many extreme religious groups refuse to operate within a democratic system that they see as invalid, explained Haidar: "Al-Houthi's group was trying to copy Iraq's sectarian strife in Yemen."

Sunni Muslims are a majority in Yemen, a nation of 19 million. It is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. However, Houthi and his supporters are not linked to al-Qaeda.

Mohamed Al-Azaki is an independent Yemeni journalist and researcher on Islamic militants at the Saba Center for Political and Strategic Studies based in Sana'a.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IC23Ak01.html

Petronas

03-31-2007, 12:48 PM

This is consistent with other reports that Yemen is a country targeted by iran for destabilization.

Yemen downs ‘Iranian drone’
Thursday, March 29, 2007

Yemeni forces shot down a foreign drone flying over the south of the Arab country, government officials said on Wednesday, and local media reported that the aircraft was Iranian. “Yes, a drone was brought down,” a government official told Reuters. He said the drone was downed on Tuesday but declined to give more details about the incident. The Akhbar al-Yawm daily, which has close links to the government, reported that the unmanned plane was Iranian.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\29\story_29-3-2007_pg4_21

Petronas

07-10-2007, 08:23 PM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 9 July 2007, Yemeni authorities discovered two explosive devices in the port city of Aden, located approximately 196 mi/360 km from Sanaa, the capital. The two bombs -- at least one of which has been confirmed as being a car bomb -- were discovered at two shopping malls in the city. Officials cordoned off the areas and defused the devices. An investigation is ongoing, and additional information regarding this incident is not available at this time. The incident comes approximately one week after a suspected suicide car bomber killed at least nine people, including foreign tourists from Spain, at a popular tourist site in the Marib region.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

08-02-2007, 02:07 PM

Occupational hazards when working in Yemen.

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 1 August 2007, the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa issued a Warden Message, which reads in part as follows: "The U.S. Embassy has reports that stray bullets from a nearby land dispute hit the British Embassy in Sanaa earlier today. The reports indicate that those involved in the dispute have been detained, and the shooting has stopped. However, due to crowding as a result of the buildup of Yemeni security personnel, the U.S. Embassy has asked its employees to avoid the area near the British Embassy for the remainder of the day. ..."

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

10-15-2007, 08:25 PM

Yemen (Country threat level - 4): On 13 October 2007, opposition activists clashed with Yemeni security forces in the southern city of Radfan, located in the Lahij province, approximately 185 mi/300 km south of Sanaa, the capital. Hundreds of demonstrators, comprised mainly of retired and demobilized military personnel from the former South Yemen, had gathered at the main square in Radfan. They intended to organize a rally to coincide with an official rally to mark the 44th anniversary of southern Yemen’s “uprising against British occupation” on 14 October. The gathering was illegal under an August 2007 ban on demonstrations. More than 1,000 security forces were deployed to prevent the banned rally and cordoned off several main roads leading into the city to prevent additional protesters from traveling to Radfan. Scuffles occurred when security forces attempted to evict the activists from the square. Police officers opened fired into a crowd, killing four people and injuring at least eight others. There were no reports of large-scale violence.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

10-23-2007, 12:45 AM

Proposed Yemen-Djibouti Bridge Threatens AFRICOM Security
October 11, 2007
By Chris Heffelfinger, Olivier Guitta

Two major developments to unfold in the coming years signal Africa's growing strategic importance, especially the Horn of Africa (HoA). As of October 1, the African continent came under the auspices of a newly created U.S. military command, AFRICOM, establishing one staff responsible for affairs with the 53 African states (http://www.africom.mil). The second development, potentially far more troubling, is the newly announced project to build the world's longest bridge—17 miles connecting Yemen and Djibouti—under Tarek bin Laden's Middle East Development LLC.

The United States may finally be recognizing the significance of Africa to its own national interests. On the economic level, access to African oil and the will to counter China's increasing presence on the continent are vital strategic interests that are pushing Washington to rationalize its approach. The U.S. wants to see its share of African oil imports go from 15% to 25% by 2015. In light of this, the security issue is paramount, and explains why U.S. involvement in Africa is growing. Recent U.S. military action in HoA more than showed the need for a dedicated military command to counter al-Qaeda's presence and operations in the region. At the end of 2006, the U.S. military helped Ethiopian troops in their rapid assault against Somalia's Islamic Courts Union, and in January 2007 American planes bombarded southern Somalia near the Kenyan border to unofficially strike an al-Qaeda site. Dating back to the 1990s, bin Laden and his organization have had operational ties to eastern Africa; first with Sudan, then of course in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The proposed construction of a bridge connecting Yemen and Djibouti, however, is likely to threaten the ongoing U.S. mission in Africa.

On the military and counter-terrorism level, Washington's policy is clear: make sure that grey zones—the African "ungoverned spaces"—do not become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda. Yet, despite the conventional wisdom decreeing al-Qaeda's desire to operate in failed states, recently declassified Harmony documents illustrate the serious challenges that the terrorist group has faced while operating in Somalia. The internal al-Qaeda situation reports found that the rampant warlordism prevalent in Somalia made it too difficult to do business. There were simply too many separate leaders to pay-off who were ultimately unreliable partners.

Yemen, on the other hand, provides an ideal location for al-Qaeda operations, aside from President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security services. Indeed, there has been much Salafi militancy in Yemen as of late. On July 14, an al-Qaeda militant drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a group of Spanish tourists visiting the ancient temple of the Queen of Sheba in Marib, killing eight Spaniards and two Yemenis (BBC News, July 14). In turn, Yemeni security services killed four al-Qaeda militants involved in the attack, one of whom escaped from a Sanaa prison last year. That escape, in which 23 prisoners fled through underground tunnels leading to a neighboring mosque, has only focused the spotlight further on Yemen's security shortfalls. Some of those men—including al-Qaeda militants involved in the attacks on the USS Cole—are believed to be hiding near the Saudi border (al-Wasat, September 12; Terrorism Monitor, September 27).

Since 2000, a spate of al-Qaeda attacks have been conducted in Yemen, aimed at destabilizing the U.S.-allied Saleh government. Seventeen American sailors were killed in the attack on the USS Cole off the port of Aden. Two years later, a similar attack was carried out against the French tanker Limburg, killing one and injuring 12. Other attacks have since been directed at oil facilities employing foreign workers. Even before these incidents, the Yemeni-Saudi border held the reputation of being one of the most notorious gun-running areas in the region (Terrorism Focus, April 8, 2004). Moreover, Abd al-Majid al-Zindani's school, Jami'at al-Iman (Faith University), has produced a number of al-Qaeda militants, not to mention the even more nefarious Dar al-Hadith school in Dammaj, where reports of foreign students coming home in body bags made their way to the international press last March (Agence France-Presse, March 26). Then, a French and a British student, both converts attending the madrassa, were killed in skirmishes with Shiite rebels. The two were apparently part of a group of foreign students armed by school leaders to act as guards at night. The Salafi school appears to have been providing military training to its students as well as ideological instruction.

Al-Qaeda's activity and infrastructure in Yemen indicates a growing presence in the country, despite President Saleh's cooperation with the U.S. war on terrorism. It is, of course, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, with his father hailing from the valley of Hadramawt, in eastern Yemen, to the south of the Empty Quarter (al-rub` al-khali). Some terrorism experts have even questioned whether bin Laden has sought refuge in one of these areas after losing his sanctuary in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Interestingly enough, the United States seems all the more aware of the dangerous situation in Yemen. As proof, on August 26, the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa warned its employees to avoid tourist sites, restaurants and shopping malls. Explaining that the risk of terrorist attacks against Westerners was considered high (al-Qaeda might want to lead a new terror wave campaign), they were recommended not to leave their workplace or residence except in case of a major emergency (al-Watan, August 28).

Impacting these developments is a planned bridge connecting Yemen and Djibouti. This past April, the Dubai-based Middle East Development LLC issued a notice-to-proceed to Noor City Development Corp., based in Napa, CA, authorizing the firm to "proceed with the planning, development, construction and management of the bridge between Yemen and Djibouti" (Engineering News Record, May 1). The Saudi billionaire and half-brother to Osama, Tarek Bin Laden, heads the project, estimated at $10-20 billion. The project enjoys the full support of the presidents of Djibouti and Yemen.

Yet, Tarek Bin Laden's pedigree should add additional concerns. More than merely a developer, in the 1990s he was general supervisor of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a fraudulent Saudi group designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as having aided al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups' fundraising efforts. The IIRO, or Hay'at al-Igatha al-Islamiya al-'Alamiyaa, is one of eight bodies under the umbrella of the Mecca-based Muslim World League (WML). The IIRO's terrorist ties go back to the first Afghan jihad against the Soviets, when Osama bin Laden's Maktab al-Khidmat (Office of Services) worked with Wael Julaidan, then with the IIRO and WML (Government's Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements, United States of America v. Enaam Arnaout, Jan. 6, 2003). The IIRO provided logistical support to the mujahideen and Julaidan, according to the federal government, and "was a leading supporter of the jihad through the relief organization network." On August 3, 2006, the Treasury Department designated the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the IIRO, as well as its Saudi executive director, "for facilitating fundraising for al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups." The group was identified as a major fundraiser for Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya.

All of this begs the question: how could Osama bin Laden's half-brother be constructing a bridge linking Yemen to the HoA at the birth of AFRICOM? The project physically and figuratively links al-Qaeda in Arabia to the African continent, posing a serious long-term security dilemma. For the next year, the nascent AFRICOM will take over responsibilities from EUCOM, under the recently confirmed General William E. Ward. This new structure will not mean more U.S. military troops on African soil. The only U.S. soldiers present (1,800 in all) will be the ones already stationed in Djibouti, a potentially short drive from Yemen.

In fact, the U.S. military decided to settle in Djibouti after the September 11 attacks for a few reasons. First, Djibouti is crucially located at the Horn of Africa. Second, it is a moderate Muslim country and is politically stable amid a chaotic region. U.S. Rear Admiral James Hart, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), U.S. Central Command, recently explained to Le Monde: "In 2002, we thought that al-Qaeda might move from Afghanistan to Africa and we wanted to have a military force here. We also wanted our soldiers to train Africans in order for them to get professional armies, capable of fighting off the terrorist threat. But this threat did not materialize as we thought it would." Third, Djibouti is a safe location, due to the long-standing presence of French troops, whose mission is to protect Djibouti.

In light of this secure environment, Americans came to Djibouti with little military firepower: two combat companies, a few Blackhawk helicopters, a C-130 transport plane, three to four P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircrafts; but no fighter jets. It appears that the United States is there to stay; indeed, it recently renewed its lease for five more years with an option for 10 additional, and the size of the camp has just been multiplied by five.

Six years after the September 11 attacks, it is baffling to imagine a project under Tarek bin Laden, through a California-based firm, linking Yemen to Africa. Taking into regard al-Qaeda's growing presence in Yemen, it is even more puzzling as to how the U.S. envisions this project promoting greater security or helping to combat terrorism in the region. What does seem a given, however, is that U.S. troops (at the only U.S. base in Africa) could end up being at far greater risk than they are today.

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373710