AQAP announces Shabwa province an Islamic Emirate

By Fatik Al-Rodaini

SANA'A, March 7, 2012- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, (AQAP) announced on Wednesday Yemen's southern province of Shabwa an Islamic Emirate, as a second emirate for the group after nearly one year of announcing Abyan province an Islamic Emirate.

The group's Yemen branch posted on several jihadi websites a statement confirming their control over the province with highlighting their activities in the region.

Yemen Interior Ministry warned on its website against a potential terrorist attacks would target vital economic installations in Yemen southern province of Hadhramout.

The Ministry said that at least 300 AQAP elements were deployed in Azzan town, Shabwa province, amongst whom were Ibrahim Al-Banaa, an Egyptian national, Qassem Al-Raimi, the military leader, and Shaker Hamel, who is described as the most dangerous elements of the Al-Qaeda. The AQAP elements  are believed to be preparing for a series of attacks on local representatives and security facilities in the province. Moreover, the group is said to be planning a further expansion of its Islamic Emirate by seizing Mukallah, the regional capital of Hadhramout.

Earlier, Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in Yemen, including an assault on soldiers that left scores dead in the southern province of Abyan and the bombing of a military plane in Sana'a.

In a statement posted on several jihadi websites AQAP claimed Abyan operation against Dofes and Kud bases quoted the statement as saying, on Sunday, 'the mujahedeen carried out a series of operations against government forces deployed at the entrances of Zinjibar,' capital of Abyan province.

The extremists claimed that 'around 100 soldiers and officers were killed while 12 others were wounded and 73 held captive' in these attacks.

On the same day, 'the mujahedeen blew up a Yemeni air force military plane in Dulaimi army base that was transporting weapons to Aden and Hadhramout provinces, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said in a statement.

The statement also demanded Yemeni government to release their prisoners from the national and political security jails in exchange for saving the lives of 73 soldiers they hold captive in Abyan.

The group urged relatives of the captured soldiers to lobby the U.S. ambassador to Yemen and President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Yemen's newly-elected leader, on the soldiers' behalf.

In Wednesday's statement, AQAP claimed responsibility for a string of attacks on security forces across the lawless south and southeast of the restive country.

In related news, AQAP threatened an American school in Yemen saying it has become a target of Yemen Al-Qaeda branch.

According to Bikyamasr.com, the American Language Institute AMIDEAST, located in the southern city of Aden, received an anonymous phone call threatening an attack by the terrorist organization unless it complied with the group’s demands.

Qaeda claims Yemen raid in suspected 'inside job'

By Fawaz al-Haidari (AFP)

March 7, 2012

ADEN — Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an attack on an army camp in southern Yemen that killed 185 soldiers, in what soldiers have condemned as an "inside job."

On Sunday, "the mujahedeen carried out a series of operations ... against government forces deployed at the entrances of Zinjibar," capital of Abyan province, said the group's Yemeni branch.

The extremists claimed that "around 100 soldiers and officers were killed while 12 others were wounded and 73 held captive" in these attacks.

Military officials and medics had told AFP that 185 soldiers were killed on Sunday when Islamist militants attacked the army camp in Kud, a town in Abyan.

The militants said they seized a tank, anti-aircraft weapons, a rocket launcher, rockets and 11 Kalashnikov assault rifles, as well as three military vehicles and "a large amount of ammunition."

They also claimed to have destroyed two tanks and burned an ammunition store.

The official, who was at the scene during Sunday's attack, said troops from the Kud base were "surprised" to see the militants carrying army issued weapons and using military vehicles.

Soldiers who survived the attack accused some army leaders who had served under former president Ali Abdullah Saleh of "collaborating" with Al-Qaeda.

General Ali Mansur, a former secretary at the defence ministry, said the assailants arrived by sea from the Gulf of Aden and seized military equipment of the National Guard to launch the assault.

It was an apparent "inside job," he said. "The operation was well planned and based on precise intelligence. It was carried out by well-trained armed groups."

Mansur charged that it was carried out "in direct coordination with the former commander of the southern military region, General Mehdi Maqola," citing accounts from soldiers who survived the raid.

New President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi last week named General Salem Ali Qatan to head the 31st Armoured Brigade in southern Yemen, replacing Maqola, a Saleh loyalist.

Also on Sunday, "the mujahedeen blew up a Yemeni air force plane at Dulaimi army base that was transporting weapons to Aden and Hadramawt" provinces, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in a statement.

"The blast took place after (the militants) sneaked into the base and planted an explosive device in the plane," it said.

An airport technician had told AFP at the time that a "mysterious" blast ripped through a Yemeni military plane at Dulaimi base, near Sanaa international airport, without causing any casualties.

In Wednesday's statement, AQAP claimed responsibility for a string of attacks on security forces across the lawless south and southeast of the restive country.

It accused Sanaa of "launching wars on those who want to implement Sharia (Islamic) law in its attempt to please the United States and the crusader West ... while holding talks with all (other) parties, including the Shiite Huthis who are killing Sunnis," a reference to rebels in Yemen's north.

The attacks claimed by AQAP came after Hadi took office on February 25, pledging in his inaugural speech to crack down on the militants.

The violence highlights the security challenges facing Hadi as he tries to restore order and unify the country's armed forces, as stipulated by a Gulf-brokered transition accord that ended Saleh's 33-year rule.

State news agency Saba quoted Hadi on Tuesday as saying: "We are determined to confront terror with all our strength whatever the price. We will track them to their last hideout."

Yemen Qaeda-linked group demands prisoner release

Wed Mar 7, 2012  

ADEN (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked group in Yemen has threatened the lives of 73 government troops it says it has captured, demanding the authorities release its fellow Islamist fighters from jail in exchange for the soldiers' safety.

The threat from the Ansar al-Sharia group (Partisans of Islamic Law), whose precise ties to al Qaeda remain unclear, was delivered via a text message sent to Reuters on Wednesday, and followed a fierce fire fight in the south of the country on Sunday between government troops and militants that left at least 110 government troops dead.

"The mujahideen demand the release of their prisoners from the national and political security jails in exchange for saving the lives of 73 soldiers they hold captive in Abyan," the text message read.

"In the event of failure to comply with their (the militants') demands, the lives of the soldiers will be in danger," it added.

The militants also urged relatives of the captured soldiers to lobby the U.S. ambassador to Yemen and President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Yemen's newly-elected leader, on the soldiers' behalf.

There was no way to verify whether the text message was really from the militants but they have often used this method to communicate with local media in the past.

The army said on Monday some of its soldiers had gone missing but did not say how many. Hadi, who was elected just last month, has said his forces will hunt the militants down.

The militants struck on Sunday, launching suicide attacks on two military posts outside the southern city of Zinjibar in the province of Abyan. Medics said at least 110 government soldiers died in the blasts and clashes that followed. The militants, who reportedly lost 20 of their own fighters in the violence, are pressing for government forces to abandon the city of Zinjibar to them. They said they had taken at least 70 government troops prisoner on Sunday.

In another text message on Wednesday, the militants also said they had allowed a Red Cross medical team into Jaar, a small town in the same province which they control, so that wounded government soldiers could receive treatment.

The head of the Yemeni delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed separately that a small team of surgeons and doctors had been granted access to Jaar, where they treated 12 soldiers in a makeshift hospital in a school.

"We managed yesterday mid-morning to obtain authorisation by (the) armed group Ansar al-Sharia to come and do some medical work in Jaar in Abyan province," Eric Marclay told Reuters, adding that the 12 soldiers were now in a stable condition.

Ansar al-Sharia is inspired by al Qaeda but the precise extent of its ties to the global militant network are unclear, although the Yemeni government says they are one and the same. Some analysts say it may be local militant groups at work however.

A year of political upheaval has severely weakened central government control over swathes of Yemen in favour of Islamist militants, who have expanded their foothold in the south, near oil shipping routes through the Red Sea.

Militants seized the town of Jaar - the second largest in Abyan - last March, while protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh paralysed the country.

Wary of al Qaeda entrenchment in Yemen, the United States backed a Gulf-brokered deal under which Saleh handed power to Hadi, who is tasked with leading the impoverished nation for the next two years.

The bloody attack on Sunday underlined the scale of the challenge Hadi faces.

Al-Qaeda militants attack in Yemen's Shabwa

By Fatik Al-Rodain

SANA'A, March 7, 2012- At least one soldier was killed and four others were wounded, two of them in critical condition, in an attack believed to be conducted by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen's southern province of Shabwa.

Eyewitnesses said that arm militants attacked a patrol vehicle, while it was in route to Mora Camp coming from the Ateq district in the Shabwa province, killing at least one soldier and injuring four others.

No more details were reported.

Suicide car bombs and violent attacks against the army have increased over the past two weeks.  On Sunday AQAP attacked two military bases in southern province of Abyan killing and wounding dozens and capturing scores more.

A deadly suicide bombing targeted two weeks ago the presidential palace in the southern province of Hadhramout killing nearly 30 Republican Guards, the same day when Hadi was sworn in at the parliament. The Al-Qaeda wing claimed responsibility for the attack in the following day.

The AQAP attacks underscore the challenges facing the new president who won support from major political forces, the United States and Saudi Arabia. He is tasked with restoring security and stability to Yemen and putting an end to growing influence of Al-Qaeda that threatens the daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Moreover, in Yemen southeast province of Al-Baydha, a provincial security official and witnesses, said that at least 1000 of AQAP operatives gathered in many cities in a readiness to fight against Yemen government forces in an attempt to expand its hold over province. Yemen Interior Ministry warned in its website the authorities in the province saying that surprise attacks were being planned.

On Monday afternoon Al-Qaeda militants took over a security outpost outside the province's central city of Al-Baydha, where they killed a soldier and wounded five others.

Separately, Yemen Interior Ministry affirmed that it had put the security forces in alert in Aden and Lahj provinces with the aim of repelling any attempts of Al-Qaeda to repeat the Abyan massacre.

The Interior Minister Abduk-Kadir Qahtan had directed to send two military units of the Central Security to maintain security and stability in the governorates, as per affirmed in the website.

In a statement, the ministry said it received information about the growth of Al-Qaeda in some southern areas, pointing out that the new Commander of the Southern Region requested sending reinforcements in order to protect the nation interests.

Al Qaeda says Yemen attack follows US troop increase

ADEN, March 6 (Reuters) - The Yemeni branch of al Qaeda said on Tuesday it attacked a U.S. intelligence officer after U.S. soldiers were sent to the country, whose new leader has vowed to fight the militant Islamist group.

In a statement posted on an Islamist website, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said the attack last week came after surveillance showed a rising U.S. military presence in the southern city of Aden.

The Pentagon confirmed the attack but disputed the group's claim that it succeeded in killing its target. The identify of the person who came under attack has not been made public.

"He was targeted after increasing U.S. activity in Yemen in the light of new political circumstances, and the bringing of a large number of U.S. soldiers to Aden in particular," it said.

"The Crusader enemy has set foot on your land to kill your sons...to rule your country and steal its riches. We urge you to carry out jihad against the Americans and their agents," it said, citing a religious edict to 'fight the American occupiers of Yemen'.

The statement comes two days after an al Qaeda-linked group, Ansar al-Sharia, claimed responsibility for a string of attacks that killed at least 110 Yemeni troops in southern Yemen and dealt a major blow to the "counter-terrorism" campaign Washington wants the country's new leader to pursue.

Washington backed the election of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last month under a deal to ease his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh from power after a year of violent political turmoil that saw the Yemeni al Qaeda wing expand its footprint in the south.

The United States has waged a campaign of assassinations by drone strikes in the country, including one last year targeting a U.S. citizen whom U.S. officials later said played a main role in plotting abortive attacks on U.S. targets from Yemen.

A suicide attack claimed by Ansar al-Sharia killed at least 26 people on February 25, hours after Hadi was sworn in pledging to fight al Qaeda in Yemen.

The United States has equipped and trained Yemeni military units - notably ones led by Saleh's son and nephew - for "counter-terrorism", though both sides say military cooperation fell off during turmoil surrounding mass anti-Saleh protests.