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.

Gov't approves budget draft of over YR 2 tln

SANA'A, March 06 (Saba) - The government approved on Tuesday a draft of the State's general budget for the fiscal year 2012 of over YR 2.1 trillion.

In its weekly meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwa, the cabinet referred the draft to the parliament to finalize the required constitutional measures.

According to the draft, the approved general budget for 2012 estimated at YR 2,111,129,453,000, with a deficit expected to reach over YR 0.5 trillion (nearly YR 561,611,320,000).

Yemen's general budget for 2011 was amounting to over YR 1.5 trillion with a deficit estimated at YR 316.4 billion.

Death toll of Yemeni troops from al-Qaida assault rises to 185; army 'fearful' after defeat

Ahmed Al-Haj, The Associated Press Mar 06, 2012

 SANAA, Yemen - The death toll from an al-Qaida assault on a military base in southern Yemen has risen to 185 government soldiers, military and medical officials said Tuesday. Many soldiers' bodies were found mutilated, and some were headless.

The scale of the army's defeat in the Sunday battle, which appears to be the worst-ever suffered by Yemen's military in its 10-month campaign against al-Qaida in the southern province of Abyan, deals a major blow to efforts by newly-inaugurated Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to uproot the militant movement from the region.

The surprise attack and the mutilations have left government troops "fearful" and with "low morale," according to a senior military official who was part of the defeated force. Another 55 soldiers were captured and paraded through a nearby town by the militants, who lost 32 of their fighters in the assault.

Medical officials in the area confirmed the latest death toll and said some of the bodies of soldiers recovered were missing their heads and bore multiple stab wounds. They said that bodies packed the military hospital morgue to which they were taken, with some taken to vegetable freezers in a military compound for lack of space.

A senior military official said that the attack left his soldiers "fearful of al-Qaida because of the barbarism and brutality of their attack."

"Al-Qaida managed to deal a blow to the army's morale. Imagine how soldiers feel when they see the bodies of their comrades dumped in the desert," he said.

Military officials had earlier said that militants overran the base and captured armoured vehicles and artillery pieces, which they turned on the army.

The official said the soldiers were taken unaware.

"It was a massacre and it came by surprise as the soldiers were asleep," he said. Militants sneaked behind army lines and attacked from the rear where there was "zero surveillance."

The attack appeared to be a response to a pledge by President Hadi to fight the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida, believed to be the most active of the militant movement's subsidiary networks.

Hadi took power last month from longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh as part of power-transfer deal backed by the United States and initiated by Arab Gulf countries.

The year-long uprising against Saleh had caused a deterioration of central state authority throughout the country, and allowed al-Qaida to seize Zinjibar in May and fight off repeated army offensives to retake it.

The U.S. had hoped that replacing Saleh would take some pressure off of Yemen's government and military, who also confront tribal and separatist insurgencies, and allow them to fight back more effectively against the militants.

Despite the defeat, and a surge of other attacks by al-Qaida, Hadi has continued to pledge to fight the militants. "The confrontation will continue until we are rid of the last terrorist, whether in Abyan or elsewhere," the Yemeni media quoted him as saying on Monday.

But he may not yet have the means at his disposal to do so: the military official in Zinjibar said the forces routed by al-Qaida on Tuesday were poorly equipped, and that better-trained, better-armed specialized anti-terrorist units needed to be brought to the front.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of military protocol or because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

Osama bin Laden's family members to leave Pakistan

March 6, 2012

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have allowed family members of slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, including his widows and children, to leave the country, a media report said on Tuesday.

A Yemeni brother-in-law of bin Laden has arrived in Pakistan to take away his two Yemeni widows, the mass circulation Urdu language Jang newspaper quoted official sources as saying.

Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in an early morning raid in the garrison town of Abbotabad on May 2 last year.

He is believed to have lived in a compound near the elite Pakistan Military Academy for nearly five years.

A commission investigating the US raid and bin Laden's presence in Pakistan has allowed the al Qaeda chief's family members to leave the country as they are no longer required for questioning.

The commission's members had interviewed bin Laden's widows as part of the investigation.

Three widows and several children and grandchildren of the al Qaeda chief are in the custody of Pakistani security agencies.

The report said bin Laden's brother-in-law was busy preparing documents for the two Yemeni widows who will be taken back to Yemen.

There was no official word on the development. The daily further reported that bin Laden's family members had been shifted from a safe house operated by security agencies to an unspecified location in Islamabad.

Police commandos have been deployed to protect them and the family could leave Pakistan in a couple of days, the report said.

Saudi authorities have refused to accept the Saudi widow of bin Laden, the report said.

The US troops had handed over all the family members of bin Laden after the 40-minute operation on May 2.

One Yemeni widow has been quoted by the media as saying that bin Laden had lived in Abbottabad for five years.

Pakistani authorities razed bin Laden's compound late last month as it had become a security concern because hundreds of people were visiting it every day.

The compound was located just two kilometres from the Pakistan Military Academy, which was attacked with rockets in late January.

No one was hurt and the attack only caused minor damage to the wall of the academy.