Rival forces clash in Yemen capital

Sana'a, September 29, 2011

Fierce clashes erupted in Yemen's capital on Thursday between troops loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and forces led by defected General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a day after tribesmen downed a warplane.

The firefights broke out in north Sanaa between forces from the elite Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, and soldiers from Ahmar's First Armoured Division, which provides protection for anti-Saleh protesters, witnesses said.

Republican Guard forces based in Amran Street were locked in a heavy exchange of fire with dissident troops deployed in Thalathine Street near Change Square where protesters demanding Saleh's ouster have camped for months, witnesses said.

They said heavy shelling believed to be coming from Republican Guard bases north of the capital was targeting a residential neighbourhood near state television, with residents pleading for help and to be spared.

Earlier on Thursday, loyalist troops clashed with Ahmar tribesmen in Al-Hasaba, in renewed fighting with the influential tribe whose leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar has sided with the protesters.

The gunbattle erupted a day after other tribesmen fighting the Republican Guard north of Sanaa shot down a fighter jet.

The military held opposition leaders responsible for downing the Sukhoi SU-22 near Arhab, 40 kilometres (26 miles) north of Sanaa, a region that is the northern gateway into Sanaa.

It also follows a large protest on Wednesday when hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated near Sanaa's Change Square, demanding Saleh's ouster and trial.

Saleh, who is under international pressure to relinquish power and allow new elections, returned to the country on Friday, sparking violence in which scores of people have been killed.

The 69-year-old president has repeatedly refused to sign a power transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) under which he would hand over to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution.

Hadi warned on Wednesday of civil war in the troubled country, in a meeting with the ambassadors of the permanent member states of the UN Security Council, the European Union and the GCC.

He said the current high level of tension "poses a direct threat to the general situation" in Yemen, the state news agency Saba reported.

"If the situation explodes, the (GCC) initiative would end, as well as all (proposed) peaceful solutions, and Yemen would enter the danger zone of descending into civil war," he said.

In other unrest, one civilian was killed and five others were wounded in overnight bombing in Taez, Yemen's second largest city that is also the scene of continuing massive anti-Saleh protests.

Meanwhile, youth groups said they plan to march on Thursday from their encampment at Change Square in north Sanaa to the south of the city where Saleh's residence is located.

"There will be an escalation during the coming two days. The youths will march... to Hedda Street, where the president's residence is," Walid al-Amari, a leading activist from the youth revolution committee, told AFP.

He said protesters want a peaceful march and have asked the leadership of the defected First Armoured Division not to provide any armed protection that could provoke Saleh loyalists.

"We have asked the troops of the First Division not to accompany us," he said.

Come to power is opposition's right but via constitution, President says

SANA'A- President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Thursday that it is the right of the opposition to come to power but via the constitution that shows the means of transfer of power peacefully.
The President made the statement during his meeting with head of the Yemen Scholars Society (YSS) Mohammed al-Hajji together with several Society's members taken part in the YSS's scientific meeting concluded today [Thursday] with a participation of 500 scholars.
Saleh pointed to the outlaws' crimes, topped by attacking military camps, killing soldiers, blocking roads, cutting off electricity, blasting oil pipeline, hindering oil and gas access to citizens and impeding the students' access to the educational establishments, stressing the scholars' responsibility to demonstrate the Islamic Sharia's judgments in such crimes that impact negatively on the country and citizens' interests.
"The country's suffering and the outlaws' crimes impose on scholars to tell the truth and advise those, who do not care of the country and people's interest", the President said, indicating to the country's crisis sparked owing to some political parties' intransigence.
"If the opposition, with no power now, perpetrates all the sabotage acts, what it will do when comes to power?" Saleh wondered, reiterating his call for dialogue.
The scholars, who tell the truth and criticize the outlaw acts, are accused by the opposition of telling lies, Saleh said, urging them to keep on saying the truth and fear none but Allah.

Man with links to al-Qaeda preacher arrested

Dylan Welch

September 28, 2011

A SYDNEY man with ''demonstrated connections'' to one of the world's most wanted terrorist preachers has been arrested by police over allegations he broke into a cash machine.

Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai was arrested after three other men were prevented from robbing a cash van at gunpoint in western Sydney yesterday.

Mr al-Ahmadzai, 21, is alleged by ASIO to have had contact with the Yemen-based al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.

Awlaki is of great concern to intelligence agencies due to his ability to use the internet to radicalise young Muslim men in Western countries. He is seen as such a threat that last year he was placed on a CIA ''catch or kill'' list.

Last year Mr al-Ahmadzai was one of 23 Australian residents whom ASIO judged of such concern that it alerted US authorities to them. But yesterday morning Mr al-Ahmadzai was in a different type of trouble, arrested by detectives from the NSW police robbery squad at his home in Ermington.

He was arrested shortly after three other men, aged between 24 and 29, were found by police in a Cecil Hills carpark. The three men were in two stolen cars and police allege they found a rifle, two handguns and several balaclavas. An armoured cash van was in the carpark. The three were charged with robbery and firearms offences.

Policesearched Mr al-Ahmadzai's home and five other locations, seizing a Subaru WRX, a pistol, ammunition, Australian and US currency, a pill press, anabolic steroids, two-way radios, laptop computers, mobile phones and passports. All four are due to face Sydney courts today.

Minister says Yemen opposition seeks 'civil war'

By AFP
September 28, 2011
Yemen's foreign minister accused the opposition on Tuesday of fomenting the strife that has left thousands dead by not accepting the election of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Abubakr al-Qirbi told the United Nations that protests against Saleh since January had cost the country ê2 billion in damage to roads, oil pipelines, power lines and other infrastructure.
Saleh, who is under international pressure to relinquish power and allow new elections, returned to the country last week, sparking violence in which scores more have died.
Qirbi told the UN General Assembly the anti-Saleh protests threatened to unleash "civil war and devastating conflict."
The minister insisted that the Saleh government had defended democracy and was "protecting human rights".
He said opposition groups had been unable to accept Saleh's 2006 election and had carried out "subversive actions to seize power." The groups had "manipulated" youth protests about the lack of jobs.
Saleh is under increasing pressure to relinquish power from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which has sought to broker a peace deal, as well as the United Nations and the United States.
Qirbi said Saleh was committed to a GCC initiative under which he should hand over power to a transitional government. The minister said Yemen would be a "model for change."
His comments were dismissed by rights groups.
"If they are serious about upholding human rights, the Yemeni authorities should stop security forces from shooting peaceful protesters, allow an international inquiry into the bloodshed, and let the United Nations establish a human rights monitoring office," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch.

Tribesmen shoot down Yemen fighter jet

Sep 28, 2011 | AFP | Sanaa

Tribesmen fighting Yemeni troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot down on Wednesday an army fighter jet, as a sea of protesters demanded the under-fire leader's ouster and trial.

A Sukhoi SU-22 ‘fell during a regular mission’ and opposition leaders were ‘responsible for the incident,’ said a military spokesman quoted by Saba state news agency.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated near Sanaa's Change Square, the focal point of anti-regime protests in the violence-wracked Arabian Peninsula country, a correspondent reported.

"We shall not rest until the butcher is executed," the demonstrators chanted as they marched in a neighbourhood of the capital controlled by dissident General Ali Muhsen al-Ahmar's First Armoured Division.

Security forces loyal to Saleh blocked the road leading to government offices beyond the Qiyadah roundabout, forcing the protest to stay within the area controlled by the defected division.

Other demonstrations were staged in the cities of Taez, Hudayda and Ibb, but all ended peacefully, witnesses said.

The fighter jet was downed by anti-aircraft guns near Arhab, 40 kilometres (26 miles) north of Sanaa, where armed tribesmen have been locked in combat with the elite Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, witnesses said.

"We saw the downed plane in flames on the ground," one witness said.

Tribesmen captured the pilot after he ejected when the plane crashed in the village of Beit Azar, tribal sources said.

The tribal area of Arhab has been targeted by heavy air strikes since a general and six other soldiers were killed Sunday in clashes between tribesmen and the Republican Guard.

General Abdullah al-Kulaibi, head of the 63rd brigade of the elite Republican Guard unit, died in the attack by tribesman opposed to Saleh's rule in the strategic town of Nihm, the defence ministry said.

Four of the attackers were killed during the assault on the military base, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the Yemeni capital, it said.

Tribal sources claimed on Monday that 33 troops were captured in the confrontation.

Meanwhile, three more gunmen were killed in overnight clashes with the guard, tribal sources said.

Nihm is one of several villages and towns that collectively make up the strategic northern gateway into Sanaa and is site of at least five Republican Guard bases.

The elite unit has so far prevented dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who now controls part of the capital, from calling in reinforcements from Yemen's northern provinces where parts of his division are deployed.

The tribesmen who carried out the assault on the military base late Sunday are allied with General Ahmar and have been battling government troops for control of the area.

Saleh, who is under international pressure to relinquish power and allow new elections, returned to the country last week, sparking violence in which scores have died.

The 69-year-old president has repeatedly refused to sign a power transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council under which he would hand power to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution.

Yemen’s Saleh, Opposition May Be Close to Accord, Diplomat Says

September 28, 2011

By Donna Abu-Nasr

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Yemen’s government and opposition are making progress in talks on a power transfer to end escalating violence, and could resolve outstanding disagreements within a week, a senior Western diplomat said.

The two sides have advanced beyond a proposal put forward by Gulf Arab nations in April for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power, adding detail to areas that had been left vague, and are now holding direct talks rather than negotiations mediated by third parties, the diplomat said in an interview yesterday, on condition of anonymity.

Mohammed al-Mutawakkil, a member of the main opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties, said in an interview from Sana’a today he is “optimistic” that a solution is near. The two sides have a practical blueprint for how to proceed, the Western diplomat said.

Violence in Yemen has escalated in the past two weeks, leaving more than 100 people dead, as fighters from tribes that support the opposition clashed with government troops. Saleh returned to the country on Sept. 24 following more than three months of recuperation in Saudi Arabia after he was injured in an attack on his compound. The president has called for revival of the Gulf Cooperation Council peace proposals, as protests demanding Saleh’s immediate ouster continue daily in the capital, Sana’a, and other cities.

Plane Shot Down

Saleh has three times come to the brink of signing the Gulf Cooperation Accord. He pulled back from signing it on May 22, when the opposition refused to attend a signing ceremony at his palace. Saleh has since given Vice President Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi the power to sign the agreement on his behalf.

Yemen’s Defense Ministry said on its website today that a military aircraft crashed after it was attacked while on a routine mission in Arhab in the north of Sana’a. The ministry said Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a former military commander who defected to join the protesters, and other opposition leaders were behind the attack.

The opposition Al-Sahwa website said the plane was shot down by tribal fighters who have been battling Saleh’s troops for several months.

Marib oil pipe hit again

SANA'A, Sep. 27 (Saba) - The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP)'s militias blew up on Tuesday morning the oil pipe in Erqain area of Marib governorate.

The blast has stopped the flow of crude to export port at Ras Isa area in Hodaida governorate.

The security authorities are currently pursuing the perpetrators, while a team of engineers has headed for the blast location to fix the oil pipe that has been exploded many times before.

Yemen FM blames opposition for ongoing violence

(AP) UNITED NATIONS — Yemen's foreign minister says the opposition movement's refusal to accept the results of the 2006 presidential elections are to blame for the country's current crisis — one that could escalate into a civil war.

Abu Bakr al-Qirbi also told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh is committed to a U.S.-backed Gulf Cooperation Council initiative as a means to ending the crisis in the beleaguered nation that has left hundreds dead.

Al-Qirbi says Saleh's government is committed to democracy and reform, but the opposition has co-opted the youth-driven protests as a way of trying to oust Saleh after he won a resounding victory in the 2006 elections.

He says the violence and unrest threatens to spark a civil war in the country.