Yemeni security official says at least 5 al-Qaida fighters killed in overnight air raids

By Associated Press

Tuesday, July 24,  2012

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni warplanes killed at least five al-Qaida-linked militants in overnight airstrikes against hideouts in the southern Abyan province, a security official said Tuesday.

The official said the attacks late on Monday concentrated on the al-Mahfad area, where militants took refuge after they were driven out from strongholds in the city of Zinjibar and the nearby town of Jaar, both of which the army recaptured from militants two months ago.

Yemeni media said earlier that the militants were consolidating their positions in al-Mahfad, quoting witnesses who said they saw military hardware headed to the area in in trucks. Local residents, cited in the reports, are appealing to the government to concentrate airstrikes against militants in the area.

In Sanaa, also Monday night, gunmen fired at the car of Yahya al-Arasy, press secretary to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the official added. Al-Arasy escaped unharmed.

The attackers tried to stop him during his drive home in the city’s west, but he escaped by accelerating through a hail of bullets, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to regulations.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday that two unknown gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated a security official in Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramaout province, as he was heading home. The attackers escaped.

Al-Qaida militants, after being defeated in Zinjibar, Jaar and Shoqra, have intensified their attacks mainly against security officials and ranking army officers.

Last Thursday, Col. Abdullah al-Maouzaei, charged with hunting down members of al-Qaida, was killed when his vehicle blew up as he turned on the ignition outside his home in the southern port city of Aden.

Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Qudami, who was the intelligence chief for one of the sectors of Sanaa, was killed earlier this month in a similar way.

Also in Aden, a suicide bomber late last month killed Maj. Gen. Salem Ali al-Quton, an army commander who was leading the fight against al-Qaida in the country’s south, while he was traveling in a three-car convoy.

Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, also known as Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is considered the most dangerous offshoot of the terror group. It seized several cities in southern Yemen since an uprising began last year. But in May, government troops attacked them in coordination with U.S. military experts based in a southern air base and managed recapturing many of its strongholds.

The deadliest reaction by al-Qaida came in May 21 when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt at a parade ground in Sanaa that killed 96 Yemeni soldiers.

Saudi releases al-Qaeda linked women detainees

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia | Mon Jul 23, 2012

 (Reuters) - Five al Qaeda-linked women detainees have been freed by Saudi authorities but the move was not linked to demands by the al Qaeda captors of a Saudi diplomat in Yemen, the government said on Monday.

Abdullah al-Khalidi, the Saudi deputy consul in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, was kidnapped outside his residence on March 28. His captors demanded a ransom and the release of detainees held in Saudi prisons but the government said in April that it could not negotiate with al Qaeda.

Khalidi has appeared in two videos since then, posted on the internet, begging King Abdullah to meet his captors' demand for the release of women detainees.

"Release those women, they release me the next day," he said in the second video posted earlier this month.

The women, who were held by Saudi security services, are relatives of al Qaeda fighters, Khalidi said.

Asked if they were released to meet the demands of Khalidi's captors, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said: "The investigation bureau and public prosecution office decided to release two of the women detainees by court order as they were (pregnant) and close to their due dates."

The other three were released on bail on Saturday pending trial, he said. One more woman detainee is serving a jail sentence.

In April, a militant who claimed responsibility for Khalidi's kidnapping threatened to kill him unless a ransom was paid and al Qaeda prisoners were freed from Saudi jails.

"We cannot consider this release as heeding to demands of the captors because, on principal, states do not accept to be subject to blackmail," said a Saudi official who declined to be named.

"There was a coincidence between the release of the women detainees on humanitarian grounds and the demands of the captors."

The government hopes the move will prompt Khalidi's captors to release him on humanitarian grounds, the official said.

The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as Islamist fighters, emboldened by political instability in Yemen, gained ground in the south of the country in the past year.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - the name of the al Qaeda group operating in Yemen - is seen by U.S. officials as the most dangerous offshoot of the global militant network.

Senior Yemen army officer survives roadside bomb -govt

ADEN, July 22 (Reuters) - A senior military official in Yemen survived an assassination attempt on Sunday in the southern province of Hadramaut, residents and the defence ministry said.

A roadside bomb went off as a convoy carrying Colonel Yahia al-Rusaishan, the commander of the air force in Hadramaut, passed through the port city of al-Mukalla, wounding him and three of his aides, residents said.

The Ministry of Defence described the attack in a text message as an "act of terror".

It was the latest in a string of assassination attempts against security officials in southern Yemen, where al Qaeda-linked Islamists gained a foothold during a 14-month uprising against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh last year.

Yemen's proximity to Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer, has seen the United States back a major Yemeni offensive against the militants which has notched up a series of successes in recent months.

Washington and Riyadh have both been the targets of abortive attacks by Yemen's al Qaeda wing and backed a power transfer deal that replaced Saleh with his deputy in February.

Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Saleh's successor, took office promising to reunify the military and to fight al Qaeda. In May, he launched a military offensive with U.S. backing that drove Islamist fighters out of a host of towns in the south.

Since Hadi came to power, Washington has increased "counter-terrorism" activity in Yemen, targeting al Qaeda figures in drone and missile strikes.

Yemen police warn of terrorists in women’s attire

Security forces put on high alert following suspect’s arrest

    By Saeed Al Batati, Correspondent

July 22, 2012

Gulf News

Sana’a: Yemeni security forces are on high alert following the arrest of a man disguised as a woman, who it is alleged intended to attack a security checkpoint. No details were provided on the suspect.

The Ministry of Interior said on Saturday that terrorists have adopted tactics, including wearing women’s attire or military uniform to target security and military checkpoints.

Earlier this month, the ministry ordered police to intensify security measures around foreign and government facilities in the capital and other important places. Al Qaida has claimed responsibility for many attacks in Yemen. On July 11, a blast killed at least 10 police cadets in the Yemen capital.

Somalia Seizes Weapons Said to Be From Al-Qaida

By ABDI GULED Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia July 21, 2012 (AP)

Security forces of a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia seized a boat carrying weapons that were being smuggled from al-Qaida militants in Yemen to fighters in Somalia, an official said Saturday.

The boat was carrying explosives, switches, rockets, guns, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades, said the ports and anti-piracy minister of Puntland, Said Mohamed Rage. He did not provide a detailed breakdown of how many weapons were seized.

"They (al-Qaida) were trying to offload the arms on the Alula coast, then to smuggle them to al-Shabab in the south of Somalia by road. They use our region as a gateway to smuggle fighters from Yemen and Somalia," he said.

One Yemeni man was arrested when the boat was seized Friday afternoon, he added.

Al-Qaida and al-Shabab — the most powerful militant group in Somalia — announced a merger earlier this year.

Al-Shabab, however, has been under increasing military pressure across Somalia over the last year because of stepped-up operations by the African Union military force and Ethiopian troops.

Human traffickers use the Puntland region to send refugees across the Gulf of Aden over to Yemen, and Rage said that hundreds of al-Shabab fighters are trying to blend in with that human trafficking network.

Puntland fears that al-Qaida-linked violence in Yemen will eventually spill over into northeastern Somalia.

"Their next base will be the mountainous hideouts in our region. They don't have any other alternative or base from which they can launch attacks. It's a worrying thing," Rage said.

Al-Shabab militants recently merged with a Puntland warlord — Mohamed Said Atom — and have clashed with government forces in Puntland several times this year.