Yemeni Women activists file sue against Hamid al-Ahmer

By Yemen 24 News

June 17, 2012

SANA'A- Yemeni women's rights activists filed a sue against Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, the Islah Party leader, prominent businessman, and a powerful tribal leader, who incited Yemeni women in Change and Freedom Squares  in an interview with the New York Times Newspaper published in May 23, 2012.

Bilqis al-Lahbi, Arwa Othman, Hoda al-Hababi, Nadia al-Kawkbani, and Samah al-Shadari filed a sue against him at South Sana'a court.

Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar said in his interview that “There was bad behavior, which turned the square into a discotheque! Those women wanted to go hand in hand with their boyfriends as lovers in the demonstrations. This is not right and is against our religion.”

However, he denied  in statement posted by his office the allegations, but most of women activist in Change Square are certainly sure that he said the words that prove his hatred to women activists in all Yemeni community.

Some women activists are accusing Al-Ahmar for inciting against them in Change and Freedom Squares. Bilqis al-Lahbi, legal female activist, said that al-Ahmar is inciting to expel women activists from squares and also incites to attack them in the famous attacks of women activists in April 16, 2011. “I just want to know what is the attitude of Tawakkul Karman in a case such this,” she added.

Samah al-Shakhdari, an activist and head of Voice Foundation for Development, said that al-Ahmar’s statement is very provocative and reflect the psychological of Hamid, who plunder the land and wants to be sodomized the honor of women.

Al-Shakhdari revealed that there are movements for women activists to make lawsuit to the Attorney General against al-Ahmar on charges of defamation women activists. “He is not naive and stupid, but his senseless statement came because his disdain of Liberals and Jurists,” she added.

However, other women activists do not believe that al-Ahmar spoke these words. Intisar Sinan, political and legal activist, said that we can’t speak about this issue until the confirmation of this news. “We need the full proof that he spoke, then we will deal with it,” she added.

Car explosion kills senior security officer in southeast Yemen

Aden (Yemen), June 17 (Xinhua-ANI): A high-ranking officer of the Yemeni security apparatus was killed Sunday morning in a car explosion in the southeastern Hadramout province, a government official said.

Colonel Ahmed Harmly, who worked at the counter-terrorism department in the security administration in Mukalla city, was killed during the car blast and two of his bodyguards critically injured, the local government official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The huge blast occurred after an apparent bomb attached to the officer's car went off at a suburban area in Hadramout capital Mukalla city," the government official said.

"Initial reports reveal that the attack caused by a focused improvised explosive device," he added.

The official accused al-Qaida militants of plotting the attack.

"An unspecified number of people were either killed or injured at the main gate of that police station. Ambulances rushed to scene," the witnesses said.

Several Yemeni military officials have been assassinated in recent months, with the government authorities blaming members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch.

The al-Qaida wing, locally known as the Partisans of Sharia ( Islamic Law), threatened to spread fighting and suicide attacks all over Yemen after it was forced to abandon its main strongholds in the southern province of Abyan.

Yemen says Islamists retreat from southern town

June 17, 2012

ADEN (Reuters) - Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda were abandoning one of the last cities where they still had a foothold after weeks of bombardments and airstrikes in a U.S.-backed government offensive, Yemeni officials said on Sunday.

Elsewhere in Yemen's south, a security official was killed in a bomb attack, showing the militants' ability to strike despite the loss of a territorial base they had held for over a year.

The Defence Ministry said large groups of fighters of the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia, which swears allegiance to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had withdrawn from Azzan in the southern province of Shabwa. It borders Abyan province, the focus of the military campaign.

Ansar al-Sharia seized control of several cities in Abyan last year during a wave of protests against the three-decade rule of then leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who redeployed some of his forces from the south to cope with the unrest.

Among the towns seized was Abyan's capital, Zinjibar, which the military said it had retaken last week.

The United States is increasingly concerned about the militant presence in Yemen and has supported the government forces with training, intelligence, drone strikes and increased military aid. The Pentagon has declined to give details of the scale of the aid, however.

The U.S. State Department on Saturday congratulated the government on the success of the offensive and urged it to swiftly restore civilian authority, humanitarian relief and essential public services to southern cities.

Separately, a colonel who led security forces in the town of Rawkab, southern Hadramout province, was killed in a bombing he blamed on Islamist militants, a security official said.

Two soldiers were wounded in the attack outside the town's police station, the official said.