Yemen president challenged by ex-president's son

A senior military official in the Defense Ministry says former president Saleh continues to meddle in Yemen's affairs, as his son Ahmed refuses to obey orders by the new president Hadi

AP , Monday 30 Apr 2012

Yemen's new president is facing a new challenge to his authority over the military, with the powerful son of his predecessor disobeying orders and elevating a relative to head a security unit to protect his father.

One of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's main goals has been to purge the military of his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh's loyalists and family members to enable reforms and restore security to a country that has been in turmoil for more than a year.

These steps are seen essential to enable Yemen's armed forces to confront al-Qaida-linked militants, who have taken over parts of the south while the country has been distracted by the power struggle in the capital.

A senior military official in the Defense Ministry said Sunday that former president Saleh continues to meddle in the country's affairs.

Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, son of the former president, commands the powerful Special Forces and Republican Guard, among the country's best trained troops. His appointment of a relative, Tarek Mohammed, to head his father's security unit was direct insubordination to Hadi.

Hadi had already demoted Mohammed from head of the Presidential Guards to head a provincial military unit, an order Mohammed and the younger Saleh refused to obey.

The military official said Hadi has rejected the new appointment. In response, Mohammed refused to hand over his current job during a meeting attended by the U.N. representative to Yemen.

The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another relative rejected an order to resign as head of the air force for weeks, finally stepping down last week. That dispute forced a shutdown in Yemen's commercial airport for a day.

Hadi took over from Saleh in February following nearly a year of street protests. In his purge efforts, he faces the risk that his predecessor's loyalists might cause massive disruptions rather than go quietly.

Earlier this month, the ex-president Saleh said in a statement that his loyalists should maintain leading roles in running the country's affairs to ensure stability, in clear defiance against attempts by his successor to purge them.

The ongoing power struggle could hamper the new government's offensive against al-Qaida militants. In recent weeks, troops have been engaged in daily battles with the militant group in southern Yemeni provinces.

Also Sunday, Yemeni security officials said three suspected al-Qaida militants were killed when a missile hit their SUV in northeastern Yemen. The officials had no details on the source of the attack or the identity of the three. U.S. drones have been active over Yemen, tracking and striking al-Qaida operatives with missiles.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The militant group said Sunday it released 73 soldiers captured by its fighters during battles with government forces in the south.

The terror network said in an emailed statement that the freeing of the soldiers followed mediation efforts by tribal elders and senior clerics. Relatives of some freed prisoners confirmed the release.

The soldiers were freed in the city of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan in a ceremony attended by top leaders of the terror network in Yemen, including military leader Qasim al-Rimi, witnesses and the statement said. The soldiers left in trucks and private cars for the nearby port city of Aden.

Al-Qaida has held Jaar for a year. The province's capital Zinjibar is also under al-Qaida control, but government troops fought their way into its center last week.

The 5 al-Qaida leaders most wanted by US

April 29, 2012

The Associated Press

On May 2, 2011, Navy SEALs shot and killed al-Qaida leader and Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in his home in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was a raid made especially daring by the fact that there was only a 50-50 chance the terrorist leader was there. After his death, these are five of the top al-Qaida leaders who pose a clear and continuing threat of an attack within the U.S., according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorist officials.

Ayman al-Zawahri - Egyptian cleric Ayman al-Zawahri took over the organization, after Osama bin Laden's killing last year by Navy SEALs. Presumed hiding in Pakistan, Zawahri has released a near-record number of propaganda videos since the bin Laden raid, exhorting followers to violence.

Abu Yahia al-Libi - The Libyan militant, as his name implies, is now the group's de facto No. 2 moving up a notch in al-Qaida hierarchy after the bin Laden raid. A key al-Qaida propagandist whose video appearances outnumber leader Zawahri, he escaped a high-security U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2005.

Mullah Mohammed Omar - Leader of the Taliban, Afghan Mullah Omar has sheltered al-Qaida during the Taliban rule and since. Thought to be hiding in Quetta, Pakistan, Omar continues to command the militant forces who work together with al-Qaida, responsible for killing some 1,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2001.

Nasser al-Wahishi - Once Osama bin Laden's aide-de-camp, Wahishi commands Yemeni affiliate al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the group U.S. counterterrorist officials warn is most capable of launching an attack on U.S. soil. AQAP has established a de facto safe haven in southern Yemen, beating back Yemeni forces that have been consumed with fighting a tribal and political revolt in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri - Chief bombmaker for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, responsible for building the underwear bomb used to try to bring down a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas 2009 and the printer-cartridge bombs intercepted in U.S.-bound cargo planes a year later. U.S. intelligence officials say he has resurfaced recently in Yemen, after months in hiding following the death by drone strike of American-born firebrand AQAP cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last fall.

Yemen's President receives SC members, GCC ambassadors

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 29, 2012- In a meeting gathered on Sunday Yemen's new President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi with the ambassadors of the Security Council's permanent members, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the deputy head of the European Union (EU) in Yemen, reviewed what really have been achieved on the ground based on the GCC initiative.

The meeting stressed the importance of the thorough preparation o the transitional period's requirements according to the set timeframe, including the electoral reforms and the law of elections and referendum.

President Hadi hailed the efforts made by the ten sponsor countries' ambassadors that had led to the achieved successes and secured Yemen from the civil war and disagreement.

Yemen's newly elected president Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi meets with the ambassadors of the Security Council's permanent members, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the deputy head of the European Union (EU) in Yemen nearly two times a week to follow-up the implementation of the Gulf initiative to solve the current crisis in the country.

Ansar Al-Sharia discloses its leader's name

April 29, 2012                    

Ansar Al-Sharia (Supporters of the Islamic Law), the group connected to Al-Qaeda, has disclosed for the first time that Abu Baseer Nasser Al-Wuhaishi is the leader of the group.

In a statement circulated to media outlets, the group said that Al-Wohaish ordered to release 73 soldiers who were captured since last March as militants of the organization attacked positions of the military around Zinjibar in Abyan.

Many questions were raised about the connections of the group that emerged in South Yemen and captured some towns in Abyan and Shabwa.

Al-Wuhaish is himself the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the recent statement of the group was considered by analysts as a confirmation to Ansar Al-Sharia's links to Al-Qaeda.

Though some Yemeni analysts said that Ansar Al-Sharia is a mixture of Al-Qaeda, and other groups and factions, Yemeni authorities and officials insisted that the group is the same of Al-Qaeda.

The statement enclosed with new photos of Al-Wohaishi cited that the Yemeni soldiers were released after sheikhs, dignitaries, clerics and activists attended to Jaar (a district that the group renamed it as Waqar) and mediated.

"After their attendance to Waqar, their demands were referred to Al-Wohaishi who in turn ordered to release the soldiers in honor of the visiting delegations" the statement added.

Al-Qaeda militants had threatened to behead the captured soldiers last Monday , but it later expressed its willingness to release them without any harms.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda still capture a Saudi diplomat, a Swiss teacher and a French aid worker after it abducted the former in the port city of Aden ant the two later from Hodieda in separate times.

Al-Qaeda has recently suffered severe blows as the military along with local tribesmen raided attacks against its hideouts in some towns of Abyan, leaving dozens of its militants killed and wounded.

Source: Yemen Post

Yemen former President will leave the country next week

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 29, 2012- An informed source said on Sunday that Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave temporarily the country next week, and go to the United Arab Emirates.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, mentioned that under the pressure of Gulf States' leaders, Saleh bowed to pressure to leave the country to ease the way to his elected successor President Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi to rule the country.

Lately, president Saleh agreed to relinquish his position as head of the General People's Congress party, in a bid to reconcile with his former deputy, Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, whom is now Yemen’s new president.

The General People’s Congress party was established in 1982.

Since then Yemen former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has headed the party.

President Saleh renounced the presidency by signing a brokered power-transfer proposal last November, and the opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties.

According to the proposal it is sharing power with opposition groups over a two-year transitional period in line with a Gulf-brokered plan to end a year of civil unrest that paralyzed the impoverished state.

Al-Qaeda releases captured soldiers in Abyan

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 28, 2012- Ansar al-Sharea, an Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda released on Saturday about 73 soldiers captured early this month by the militants, which control swaths of towns in southern Yemen.

Ansar Al Sharia released the hostages for "The sake of God and in response to the appeals of the soldiers' families and the tribal mediation," a tribal figure reported.

The militants invited on Friday reporters, mediators, human rights activists and the soldiers' relatives to the city of Jaar to hand the captives over to their families.

The group decided on Friday night to free the soldiers.

"The soldiers will be handed to their families who came to the city of Jaar in Yemen's southern province of Abyan to receive them," the tribal figure added.

Two days ago Ansar al-Sharia threatened to execute at least 73 soldiers captured by the militants during raids on military bases in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan last month within a week if the government doesn’t meet their demands.

The militants asked Yemen new president Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Prime Minister Mohamed Basendwa to free their militants from Yemeni jails.

The militants overwhelmed the military bases in the Doufas district killing and taking as hostage scores of soldiers as well as looting military equipment.

Earlier this month, at least 23 Yemeni soldiers were executed by Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen’s southern province of Lahj.

Army soldiers from the 119th Brigade who were held captives by Ansar Al-Sharia militants linked to Al-Qaeda during fighting were executed in the desert between Lahj and Abyan provinces by the terrorist group members.

“Many dead bodies of the army soldiers were found scattered in different places in the suburbs of Lahj province following the fierce fighting,” residents said.

Members of the Yemeni parliament called to engage al-Qaeda into a dialogue, trying to negotiate the terms of a truce.

The parliamentarians from the Legislative Assembly insisted on the Executive to agree to hold talks with leaders of Ansar al-Sharia.

A group of legislators from different tendencies appreciated the talks with the militia, which in Sana’a is considered a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a duty under certain conditions to put end to the bloodshed in the country.

Human Rights Watch urged on Wednesday Ansar al-Sharia militants to drop its threat to execute captured Yemeni soldiers, calling the Yemeni government to not agree to swap the militants for detained Islamist militants in Yemeni jails.

 “Ansar al-Sharia should immediately drop its threat to execute captured Yemeni soldiers,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “No one’s life, whether a captured soldier or civilian, is a bargaining chip to be discarded at will,” she added.

Al-Qaeda assassinates security officer in Lahj province

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 28, 2012- A security officer was assassinated on Saturday morning in Yemen’s southern province of Lahj by unknown men believed to be al-Qaeda militants.

Yasser Abdul Qawi, a Yemeni intelligence officer, was shot by unknown men on a motorcycle, whom opened fire on him while he was walking near the main city hospital.

Last week, an officer in Yemen's southern province of Lahj escaped an assassination attempt conducted by unknown men.

Abdul Qader al-Shami, the head of security intelligence in Lahj was severely injured along with two of his bodyguards in a bomb blast.

Targeting Yemeni soldiers and officers by Ansar al-Sharea, an Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda it is a strategy followed by al-Qaeda fighters to defeat the Yemeni authorities which they accused of dealing with the west.

More than 250 people have been killed since government forces stepped up attacks on the militants whom it accused of assaulting a military camp near Lawdar earlier this month.

Yemen's new president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who took office vowing to fight al Qaeda, is also facing challenges from Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north and secessionists in the south of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

American Embassy in Sana'a denies Mareb Press allegations

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 27, 2012- In a statement posted on the Internet the American embassy in Yemen denied on Friday night the allegations of Mareb Press website which accused the US embassy personnel of raping Yemeni girls.

''The Embassy takes these types of allegations against its staff extremely seriously and categorically and emphatically denies these outrageous claims,'' the statement said.

The embassy criticized the Mareb Press website, which belongs to Islah party, Yemen’s Islamic faction and the main block of the Opposition led by al-Ahmars' family.

''The Embassy would like to express its outrage with the editors and managers of the Mareb Press for printing such spurious allegations without proof and without any attempt to confirm the allegations with the Embassy,'' it read.

The American Embassy demanded the website reaction of the article, saying the slanderous journalism is deplorable, and the Embassy demands the immediate retraction of the article.

''The Embassy fully expects that in future situations Mareb Press will abide by more professional journalism standards,'' the statement added.