The 5 al-Qaida leaders most wanted by US

April 29, 2012

The Associated Press

On May 2, 2011, Navy SEALs shot and killed al-Qaida leader and Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in his home in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was a raid made especially daring by the fact that there was only a 50-50 chance the terrorist leader was there. After his death, these are five of the top al-Qaida leaders who pose a clear and continuing threat of an attack within the U.S., according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorist officials.

Ayman al-Zawahri - Egyptian cleric Ayman al-Zawahri took over the organization, after Osama bin Laden's killing last year by Navy SEALs. Presumed hiding in Pakistan, Zawahri has released a near-record number of propaganda videos since the bin Laden raid, exhorting followers to violence.

Abu Yahia al-Libi - The Libyan militant, as his name implies, is now the group's de facto No. 2 moving up a notch in al-Qaida hierarchy after the bin Laden raid. A key al-Qaida propagandist whose video appearances outnumber leader Zawahri, he escaped a high-security U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2005.

Mullah Mohammed Omar - Leader of the Taliban, Afghan Mullah Omar has sheltered al-Qaida during the Taliban rule and since. Thought to be hiding in Quetta, Pakistan, Omar continues to command the militant forces who work together with al-Qaida, responsible for killing some 1,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2001.

Nasser al-Wahishi - Once Osama bin Laden's aide-de-camp, Wahishi commands Yemeni affiliate al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the group U.S. counterterrorist officials warn is most capable of launching an attack on U.S. soil. AQAP has established a de facto safe haven in southern Yemen, beating back Yemeni forces that have been consumed with fighting a tribal and political revolt in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri - Chief bombmaker for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, responsible for building the underwear bomb used to try to bring down a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas 2009 and the printer-cartridge bombs intercepted in U.S.-bound cargo planes a year later. U.S. intelligence officials say he has resurfaced recently in Yemen, after months in hiding following the death by drone strike of American-born firebrand AQAP cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last fall.

Yemen's President receives SC members, GCC ambassadors

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 29, 2012- In a meeting gathered on Sunday Yemen's new President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi with the ambassadors of the Security Council's permanent members, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the deputy head of the European Union (EU) in Yemen, reviewed what really have been achieved on the ground based on the GCC initiative.

The meeting stressed the importance of the thorough preparation o the transitional period's requirements according to the set timeframe, including the electoral reforms and the law of elections and referendum.

President Hadi hailed the efforts made by the ten sponsor countries' ambassadors that had led to the achieved successes and secured Yemen from the civil war and disagreement.

Yemen's newly elected president Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi meets with the ambassadors of the Security Council's permanent members, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the deputy head of the European Union (EU) in Yemen nearly two times a week to follow-up the implementation of the Gulf initiative to solve the current crisis in the country.

Ansar Al-Sharia discloses its leader's name

April 29, 2012                    

Ansar Al-Sharia (Supporters of the Islamic Law), the group connected to Al-Qaeda, has disclosed for the first time that Abu Baseer Nasser Al-Wuhaishi is the leader of the group.

In a statement circulated to media outlets, the group said that Al-Wohaish ordered to release 73 soldiers who were captured since last March as militants of the organization attacked positions of the military around Zinjibar in Abyan.

Many questions were raised about the connections of the group that emerged in South Yemen and captured some towns in Abyan and Shabwa.

Al-Wuhaish is himself the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the recent statement of the group was considered by analysts as a confirmation to Ansar Al-Sharia's links to Al-Qaeda.

Though some Yemeni analysts said that Ansar Al-Sharia is a mixture of Al-Qaeda, and other groups and factions, Yemeni authorities and officials insisted that the group is the same of Al-Qaeda.

The statement enclosed with new photos of Al-Wohaishi cited that the Yemeni soldiers were released after sheikhs, dignitaries, clerics and activists attended to Jaar (a district that the group renamed it as Waqar) and mediated.

"After their attendance to Waqar, their demands were referred to Al-Wohaishi who in turn ordered to release the soldiers in honor of the visiting delegations" the statement added.

Al-Qaeda militants had threatened to behead the captured soldiers last Monday , but it later expressed its willingness to release them without any harms.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda still capture a Saudi diplomat, a Swiss teacher and a French aid worker after it abducted the former in the port city of Aden ant the two later from Hodieda in separate times.

Al-Qaeda has recently suffered severe blows as the military along with local tribesmen raided attacks against its hideouts in some towns of Abyan, leaving dozens of its militants killed and wounded.

Source: Yemen Post

Yemen former President will leave the country next week

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 29, 2012- An informed source said on Sunday that Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave temporarily the country next week, and go to the United Arab Emirates.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, mentioned that under the pressure of Gulf States' leaders, Saleh bowed to pressure to leave the country to ease the way to his elected successor President Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi to rule the country.

Lately, president Saleh agreed to relinquish his position as head of the General People's Congress party, in a bid to reconcile with his former deputy, Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, whom is now Yemen’s new president.

The General People’s Congress party was established in 1982.

Since then Yemen former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has headed the party.

President Saleh renounced the presidency by signing a brokered power-transfer proposal last November, and the opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties.

According to the proposal it is sharing power with opposition groups over a two-year transitional period in line with a Gulf-brokered plan to end a year of civil unrest that paralyzed the impoverished state.