Yemen protests paralyze 2 cities, police kill two

By Mohammed Ghobari and Mohamed Sudam

May 11, 2011

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni security forces killed two protesters and wounded dozens on Wednesday as mass rallies demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh paralyzed two major cities on Wednesday, residents and medics said.

Snipers shot dead two demonstrators in Taiz as unrest running into a third day shut down Yemen's main industrial city. Dozens were wounded by gunfire, tear gas, and beatings by plainclothes agents wielding bats, medics in Taiz said.

Protesters retaliated by torching a police building, residents said.

Neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia and the United States fear escalating violence could push impoverished Yemen, already riven by tribal and separatist conflict, into chaos that could be used by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing to operate more freely.

Security forces in Taiz had been trying to break up a protest blockade of the education ministry in the region, some 200 km (130 miles) south of the capital Sanaa.

But protesters instead extended their blockade to seal off Taiz's public services and branch of the oil ministry. Residents said the city of 540,000 people was effectively paralyzed.

"Stores are closed and the streets are completely empty of pedestrians, only protesters are around in the areas they are confronting (security forces)," resident Wajdi Abdullah said.

Protesters also brought life in the city of Ibb to a virtual halt. "Almost all the stores are shut in Ibb except a few selling basic food items. No one is going to work -- this is unprecedented in this city," said resident Ali Noaman.

The Arabian Peninsula country has been buffeted by three months of daily protests and demonstrators frustrated by Saleh's reluctance to relinquish nearly 33 years in power have been seeking new ways of loosening his grip.

Many have called for extending a sporadic general strike to a daily event.

Yemen is facing a growing fuel crisis as tribesmen continue a weeks-long blockade of Maarib province, the main source of its oil and gas. A shipping source told Reuters the government was losing around $3 million a day as exports were blocked.

But that blow may prove just as crushing for residents themselves as it is for Saleh's government.

Yemen's fragile economy is struggling to stay afloat as the currency tumbles below 240 against the dollar, and prices of basic necessities skyrocket. All this will increase hardship for the 40 percent of Yemen's 23 million people who live on less than $2 a day and a third of whom suffer chronic hunger.

Residents in more remote areas are also suffering severe water shortages because trucks have stopped bringing water shipments due to fuel rationing.

Anwar Al-Awlaki is just a big mouth, says his father

By: Fares Anam

Sana'a, May 11, 2011- Nasser al-Awlaki is the father Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, who has U.S. citizenship and stands accused of targeting the west with terror attacks. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper on Sunday, Nasser al-Awlaki said that rumors that his son would replace Osama bin Laden as the leadership of al-Qaeda was no-nonsense. In this interview he said that U.S. media was behind these claims.

“He is just a man with strong views and a big mouth,” said al-Awlaki about his son. He said that there were three drones which hover above his village 24 hours a day. “It’s the Americans, I’m sure of it.

They’ve killed bin Laden and now they’re after my son,” he added. The Guardian explains that Anwar al-Awlaki, although not a senior al-Qaeda leader, is seen in the west as one of the network’s top leaders and the frontrunner to replace bin Laden. This was apparently all because of his charisma and savvy when he delivers sermons against the west and the U.S.

He was also popular through his use of the Internet and had supports on social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. He has urged Muslims worldwide to target Americans.

Nasser al-Awlaki feared for the life of his eldest son, Anwar, and after the death of bin Laden, some officials believe that Anwar and the Yemen-based al-Qaeda is the most serious threat to the U.S., noted the Guardian. U.S. President Barack Obama has given the green light for the killing of Anar al-Awlaki who is believed to be hiding in Shabwa province in south-east Yemen. U.S. officials have said that the missile strike, launched from an unmanned drone in Shabwa province last Thursday and which led to the killing of two citizens, was aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki. He had escaped the missiles though.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper and CBS television in the U.S. quoted the attack as targeted at Anwar al-Awlaki. The U.S. suspects him of being linked to an attempted attack U.S. on a passenger plane on December 25 2009. The U.S. media said that they obtained this information from U.S. officials who asked not to be named.

U.S. attorney-general Eric Holder said about Anwar al-Awlaki that “he is in the same list with bin Laden”. The Yemeni Ministry of Defense meanwhile announced that “two leaders of al-Qaeda were killed” without giving any other details.

Anwar Al-Awlaki is married and is a father for five sons. He has been accused of having met with Nigerian Umar Farooq Abdul Muttalib who was wounded and detained when he tried to blow up a passenger plane on a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit.

He also corresponded with the American officer Nedhal Hassan who was in charge of shooting dead 13 persons at Fort Hood base in Texas in November 2009. The U.S. deployed drones several months ago in Yemen to hunt down al-Qaeda activists that are increasingly in Yemen.

Diplomatic documents leaked by the Wikileaks website in January confirmed the involvement of the U.S. in an air raid targeting al-Qaeda. This had caused dozens of deaths in southern Yemen in December 2009.

A leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) vowed last Wednesday to avenge the May 2 killing of bin Laden by U.S. special forces in Pakistan.

Source: Yemen Observer

Osama bin Laden said: 'Find me a wife'

Matchmaker reveals how he found the right girl for al-Qaida leader – Yemeni woman who is now in Pakistan's custody

* Tom Finn in Sana'a

* The Guardian, Wednesday 11 May 2011

* Article history

It was early in September 1999 when Rashad Mohammed Saeed Ismael, a Yemeni sheikh in his early 20s working as a preacher and a leading member of al-Qaida in Kabul, received the most important phone call of his life. Osama bin Laden had decided to marry for the fifth time and had charged Rashad, one of his closest aides, with the important task of finding him the right woman.

The aide listened carefully as Bin Laden described to him his desired spouse: "She must be pious, dutiful, young [preferably aged 16-18], well mannered, from a decent family, but above all patient. She will have to endure my exceptional circumstances."

Luckily he knew just the right girl: Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, a 17-year-old daughter of a civil servant and a former student of his, was, according to Rashad, "the perfect match" for the al-Qaida leader, then 44.

Now, just over 10 years later, Sheikh Rashad, who describes himself as a staunch supporter of al-Qaida in Yemen, is fighting for Amal and her daughter, who are currently being detained by Pakistani authorities, to be brought back home in the wake of Bin Laden's death.

"We have a strong practice in Islam called ardth [family honour]," he says. "When a woman like Amal is widowed, it is a duty upon all Muslims to look after her and ensure her safety. All the Yemeni people want her to come home."

Others fear that if Amal is brought back to Yemen she may be handed over by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the Americans for further questioning.

Any attempts by the US to hurt Amal or any of Bin Laden's family, Rashad says, "will cause an explosion between the west and the Islamic world. Women are not warriors. America knew that Bin Laden never used women to participate in his battles."

In 2000, Rashad returned to his home town of Ibb, a verdant city in Yemen's south-west, to make the necessary arrangements. He went to the woman first, explaining to her who Bin Laden was, what he was like, and how he moved from one place to another pursued by the Americans. After she "dutifully accepted" Bin Laden's offer, a dowry of $5,000 was wired to Amal's family, triggering a bout of pre-marriage celebrations in preparation for the young woman's departure to Afghanistan.

Bin Laden's matchmaker, Amal and her elder brother left Yemen for Pakistan, first to Karachi, and then to Quetta, where they stayed for a few days until Bin Laden sent some guards to pick her up and bring her into Afghanistan. The wedding ceremony, which took place in Kandahar, then the heart of the Taliban's operations, was an all-male affair carried out in traditional Yemeni fashion. The men sang and danced and a lamb was slaughtered at Bin Laden's feet as distinguished guests recited poetry and sung him songs written for the occasion.

Today Rashad believes the fate of Bin Laden's family, especially his wives, is as, if not more, important to al-Qaida than Bin Laden's death.

"We [al-Qaida in Yemen] received the news of Bin Laden's death with happiness because we knew it was his aim to die as a martyr at the hands of the Americans. But the question of his relatives is one of women's honour, something we consider untouchable."

With Bin Laden's death, some officials believe the Yemen-based affiliate, which is autonomous and more internationally active than the old core of al-Qaida in Pakistan, may now represent the gravest threat to the US.

Yemen's weak central governance, rugged terrain, and widespread poverty has gifted militants significant elbow room over the past few months in tracts of the south-east where they have been able to thrive despite a barrage of airstrikes and raids by Saleh's US-trained counter-terrorism forces.

But despite the group's own near daily assaults on Yemeni security forces, local experts insist that al-Qaida remains a marginal group with a few hundred hardcore fighters hiding out in the mountainous provinces of Marib and Shabwa.

Last Thursday the US launched a missile strike from a drone on a village close to Rashad's village, incinerating a car along with two alleged al-Qaida militants. US and Yemeni officials later claimed that Anwar al-Awlaki, the spiritual guru of Al-Qaida in Yemen, had been the intended target but that he evaded the missile.

Rashad says he anticipates further US strikes on Yemeni soil in the near future.

"The policy of the Arab world rulers has lost them the sovereignty of their countries. All constitutions and laws have been sacrificed," he says.

"The Americans will continue to bomb us because Saleh's regime no longer controls anything and will use anything to gain support and stay in power."

When asked about the size of the organisation in Yemen and its support base, Rashad replied: "Al-Qaida is a complicated web that has no end or beginning.

"This is not an organisation with application letters and a database. Those who want to join al-Qaida receive standard religious lessons and basic military training, after that they're considered members."

Yemeni Qaeda chief warns jihad will intensify

DUBAI, May 11, 2011, AFP- The leader of Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch has warned that jihad will become more "intense and harmful" after the killing of Osama bin Laden by US commandos, SITE monitoring group reported Wednesday.

Nasir al-Wahishi, leader Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said in a statement posted on an Islamist website that the "ember of jihad is brighter" following the May 2 death of bin Laden, the US-based group said.

"Do not think of the battle superficially ... What is coming is greater and worse, and what is awaiting you is more intense and harmful," Wahishi said, according to a translation given by SITE.

He warned Americans not to fool themselves that the "matter will be over" with the killing of bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda.

"We promise Allah that we will remain firm in the covenant and that we will continue the march, and that the death of the sheikh will only increase our persistence to fight the Jews and the Americans in order to take revenge," Wahishi said.

The US has become increasingly concerned about the threat posed by Islamist militancy in Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral homeland, and has warned of the potential for the country to become a regrouping ground for Al-Qaeda.

Four days after bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid on his Abbottabad compound, about two hour's drive from Islamabad, a US drone attack targeted US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi in southern Yemen.

The cleric, whom the US says has strong links to Al-Qaeda, survived the attack in southern Yemen but two AQAP members were killed.

In January 2009, the Saudi and Yemeni Al-Qaeda branches announced their merger to form the Yemen-based AQAP, which later went on to claim a failed attempt to bomb Detroit-bound US airliner in December 2009.

Wahishi in his eulogy said bin Laden was killed "while his hand was on the trigger, fighting the enemies of Allah without tiring or surrendering."

"He was killed while remaining firm and not changing or altering, as he continues according to the covenant of the believers."

He stressed that the torch will pass from bin Laden to others who will keep up his work for generations.

"Let the enemies of Allah know that we are determined to take revenge."

Al-Qaeda formally acknowledged bin Laden's killing four days after he was killed and his body buried at sea.

In his final audio message recorded a week before his killing, bin Laden warned there will be no US security before the Palestinians live in security.

Addressing US President Barack Obama, he said: "America will not be able to dream of security until we live in security in Palestine. It is unfair that you live in peace while our brothers in Gaza live in insecurity."

Wednesday's death brought to six the number of protesters killed since Sunday by security forces at Taez, Yemen's second largest city located 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of the capital, according to a tally by medics.

Thousands of teachers have been staging a sit-in outside the regional ministry of education offices in Taez demanding better pay and postponement of final exams. Their action is joined by hundreds of anti-regime protesters.

Gulf bloc welcomes more kings, demands Yemen deal

RIYADH, May 11, 2011, AFP- The six Gulf monarchies Tuesday responded to Arab uprisings by agreeing to expand their regional grouping to include pro-Western Jordan and Morocco and urged a quick political deal in Yemen.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) welcomed bids by the two Arab kingdoms to join the six-nation grouping of Gulf monarchies, its secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani said.

"Leaders of the GCC welcomed the request of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to join the council and instructed the foreign ministers to enter into negotiations to complete the procedures," Zayani told reporters.

He said the same procedure would be followed with Morocco.

His remarks came after a summit in Riyadh of the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, discussed relations with Iran, the unrest in Yemen -- the Arabian Peninsula's only republican state -- and the tensions sweeping the region.

The heads of state demanded that all sides in Yemen, which has limited observer status in the GCC, sign a transition plan brokered by the bloc.

"The council urged all parties in Yemen to sign the agreement which is the best way out of the crisis and spare the country further political division and deterioration of security," the GCC leaders said in a joint statement.

It said their transition plan for Yemen was a "comprehensive agreement that would preserve Yemen's security, stability and unity."

GCC heads of state discussed the bloc's mediation efforts which stalled this month in the face of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to sign up to proposals which would require him to stand down.

He has been insisting that any transfer of power should be in line with the constitution which would allow him to serve out his term until 2013.

The GCC plan proposes the formation of a government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and resigning after 30 days, a day after parliament passes a law granting him and his aides immunity.

GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani travelled to Sanaa last week to invite members of the government and the opposition to sign the transition plan in Riyadh and to obtain the president's signature but he returned empty-handed.

At Tuesday's summit, the Gulf monarchies also criticised Iran's "continued interference" in their internal affairs.

Relations between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbours have deteriorated sharply, with the bloc accusing Tehran of seeking to destabilise Arab regimes by stoking the unrest that has rocked the region.

Shiite-dominated Iran strongly criticised Saudi Arabia's mid-March military intervention in Sunni-ruled Bahrain which was aimed at helping crack down on a Shiite-led uprising.

Iran says it gives "moral support" to Bahrainis but is not involved in the protests. Bahrain and Kuwait have expelled Iranian diplomats, accusing them of espionage.