Sunday, August 21, 2011

Seven People killed in Two Separate Suicide Bomber Attacks in Abayn Province

By Fatik Al-Rodaini

Sana'a, August 21, 2011- At least seven people were killed and several others were wounded in two separate attacks on Saturday night in Yemen's southern province of Abyan.

Local media outlets said according to tribal sources that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, carried out two suicide bomber attacks against tribesmen who fight alongside the Yemen's army in Abyan province.

Sources told the Yemen 24 News that first attack was carried out in Modia district, by a suicide bomber who blew himself up among tribesmen, killing at least two people and injuring another. On the other hand, the other attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber when he below up his car among tribesmen on Saturday night in Al- Urqub district, south of Modia town killing five people and wounding several others. While the other attack

On Friday Yemeni tribesmen killed four Islamist militants in the southern Abyan province, a day after a Yemeni jet bombed another southern location killing at least five militants.

The militants were ambushed and killed in the southern town of al-Urqub.

A day earlier, a Yemeni air strike hit the southern coastal town of Shaqra as well as two sites where militants had gathered in the town of Zinjibar.

Shaqra fell to the militants on Wednesday. It is the third town to be seized by militants following Jaar in Abyan province in March, and Zinjibar, the provincial coastal capital, in May.

Yemen's army in July launched an offensive on militants suspected of having ties to Al-Qaeda. Islamist militants, some possibly linked to al Qaeda, may be exploiting a security vacuum as Saleh and his allies fight to stay in power.

Army units, backed by tribal fighters who have grown frustrated by the state's inability to drive out the militants, have been struggling to retake Zinjibar, which lies east of a major shipping lane where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

Popular protests against Saleh erupted during uprisings that ousted the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt this year, but the Yemeni leader has clung to power, defying international pressure and three times backing out of a Gulf-brokered transition deal.

Family's fears for Bin Laden wife - imprisoned after trying to save her terrorist husband.

by Gary Anderson, Sunday Mirror 21/08/2011

OSAMA Bin Laden’s ­favourite wife is still ­being held in Pakistan three months after he was killed.

Amal al-Sadah was shot in the leg as she tried to shield her ­husband when US Navy Seals burst into the Al Qaeda terror chief’s hideout in ­Abbottabad.

But her brother Zakariya ­al-Sadah says she is refusing ­treatment in protest at her ­detention along with her five children by Bin Laden.

“We are worried about her physical and mental health,” said Zakariya, who is campaigning to have his sister released and ­allowed to return to live in her native Yemen. “My sister is being held illegally. Under international law she should be set free.

“She’s not locked in a cell but is watched 24 hours a day and is living in a small room with her ­children.

“Yet she hasn’t been tried or convicted and we have no idea where she is being held.”

He added: “The wounds to her leg are not minor, but she is refusing surgery until she is allowed to see her family.”

Zakariya claimed his sister had done nothing wrong... quietly forgetting that she had plenty of ­opportunities to inform the authorities of her husband’s whereabouts during their 10-year ­marriage.

“My sister was a wife, she did not commit any crime,” he said. “She did not want to be involved in anything her ­husband was doing. She was busy ensuring her children were raised well, like any mother.”

Amazingly, he said his ­family had no regrets about letting his sister marry Bin Laden, who masterminded the World Trade Center attacks in which 2,974 died.

Amal, 28, was “gifted” to Bin Laden, who ­already had four wives, when she was just 15.

Two Saudi wives and another five children captured after the May 1 raid on the Abbottabad compound are also thought to be still in ­detention in Pakistan.

It was widely known that Amal gave birth to a daughter days after 9/11. She was named Safia by Bin Laden, after a relative of the ­prophet Mohammed who “had killed a Jew”. But ­Zakariya ­revealed she has had four more children – two  sons and two daughters – further evidence that the world’s most wanted ­terrorist was able to ­establish a comfortable life under the noses of the Pakistani ­authorities before the US hunted him down.

Zakariya added: “We want the children to be brought up by their mother in Yemen. And we are not at all worried about raising Bin Laden’s children. We have been through a lot of hardships since Amal married Osama, but we do not regret the marriage. Amal never complained about Osama as a husband. She did not know most of what he was doing outside their married life.”

Zakariya said the US may have missed opportunities to capture Bin Laden in the past as Amal’s parents had visited her several times after she wed Bin Laden.

He added: “We are hoping my sister’s release can be resolved quickly, before we have to take Pakistan to the international courts and get compensation for the damage they have caused to her and to our family.”

Dozens Opposition Militants Killed in Attack on Yemen Military Base

Sana'a, August 20, 2011

Dozens of opposition militants were killed in an attack on a Republican Guards' military base in northeast of Yemen's Sanaa province on Saturday, the ruling party' s website reported.

The attack took place in the Arhab district, some 60 km northeast of the capital Sanaa, a key stronghold of the opposition- backed fighters who support protesters' demand of ousting President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"The Republican Guards stationed in Samaa military base repelled the attack by militants led by Abdul Majid al-Zindani, a prominent figure of the opposition Islamic Islah (reform) party, and Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the defected First Armored Division," the website said.

"Dozens were killed, six bodies were identified as students of the al-Zindani-run Eyman University while the others were soldiers of the defected General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar," it said, adding that "the troops forced them to flee."

The volatile district has been the front line of almost daily clashes between the opposition fighters and Saleh's elite Republican Guards since late May, which have left dozens from both sides dead, including civilians, and forced hundreds of villagers to flee the area.

The Defense Ministry said the opposition militants were seeking to capture the Samaa military base, the Sanaa International Airport and northern entrances of Sanaa.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses told Xinhua that shelling by the Republican Guards on Saturday on Arhab's villages of Shaab, Bani Jarmouz and Marouza, left three opposition militants dead and two others injured.