Yemen: 7 killed in attack on prison, 29 escape

February 13, 2014

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Heavily armed militants attacked Yemen’s main prison in central Sanaa on Thursday, killing seven people and helping 29 inmates escape, many of them convicts in terrorism-related charges, the country’s state news agency reported.

The attack started with a car bomb explosion, then militants exchanged heavy gunfire with the guards at the Sanaa Central Prison, and a number of prisoners fled amid the chaos, according to SABA. A security official said authorities suspect it was an inside job.

Among the 29 who fled, 19 are convicted al-Qiada prisoners including those plotting the assassinations of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and western diplomats, the official said. He said those killed in the exchange of gunfire were mostly security forces.

Witnesses said earlier that explosions rocked the capital and smoke billowed into the sky. Security forces and army troops have been deployed to the site of the attack and sealed off the whole area. The prison, housing thousands of inmates, is on the main road leading to the airport, which was closed.

Security officials say that the attackers came in three groups and three cars, including the car bomb. One group detonated the car bomb, the second joined the first and engaged with prison guards at the front gate while the third dispersed throughout the prison, engaging with security forces outside. Other militants were firing from the rooftops of houses surrounding the prison.

Authorities suspect the attackers received help from inside the prison in order to allow the inmates to break free, one security official said. He added at least three of the prison officials and guards were detained.

They also said that authorities received information of possible attack on Interior Ministry, in charge of police, and Defense Ministry. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s party said it fears that those who fled were involved in an attempt to assassinate him in 2011. Abdu al-Janadi, Saleh’s party spokesman said, “we are warning of helping prisoners to escape. We are waiting for a transparent investigation into the incident.”

Saleh was removed from power in a yearlong uprising that started in 2011 and ended after he signed a power transfer deal that gave him immunity from prosecution in return for leaving power in 2012. During the uprising, he came under attack in his presidential palace that left him with severe injuries requiring surgeries in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has witnessed major jailbreaks in the past that have fueled militancy, including one in February 2006 when 21 al-Qaida militants dug a tunnel and fled the intelligence prison in Sanaa. Many of those who fled at that time are now the group’s most wanted and dangerous men, including its military commander Qassim al-Raimi who is believed to have been behind a series of foiled attacks against Americans.

Three years earlier, 11 al-Qaida militants escaped during another prison break took place when 11 of al-Qaida militants fled, including the suspected perpetrators of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbor that killed 17 American sailors.

Washington considers al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the group’s Yemeni offshoot, its most dangerous branch. It seized large swaths of lands in the south before the military launched a major offensive in the summer of 2012, driving many of them out. The group has continued to carry out ambitious and deadly attacks, including storming the Defense Ministry headquarters leaving 56 dead last month, including foreigners.

Al Qaeda destroyed American Drone Control Center in Yemen

6 December 2013

On Friday, Al Qaeda took responsibility for a successful attack on the Yemeni puppet defense ministry that killed 52 apostates on Thursday, saying the complex hosted US personnel behind drone strikes against Muslims, reports AFP.

Accounting to democratic media, in a statement published by an unnamed media outlet of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on an unnamed Twitter account, the Mujahideen said:

“The city center compound was stormed… after the Mujahedeen proved that it accommodates drone control rooms and American experts”.

“As part of a policy to target drone control rooms, the Mujahideen have dealt a heavy blow to one”.

“Such security headquarters in partnership with the Americans in their war on these Muslim people are a justified target wherever they may be.”

According to official apostates’ figure, up to 25 Mujahideen took part in the assault, and 11 of them embraced Martyrdom (God willing). The other 14 Mujahideen returned safely to their bases.

Department of Monitoring

Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.

Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/12/06/18624.shtml.

Al-Qaida militants kill 38 troops in Yemen attack

September 20, 2013

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Taking advantage of heavy fog, al-Qaida militants disguised in military uniforms carried out three coordinated car bomb attacks on a security barracks and military posts in a southern Yemeni province Friday, killing at least 38 troops and wounding dozens others, military and security officials said.

The attacks were the largest since a U.S.-backed military offensive last year routed militants from significant swaths of territory they had seized during Yemen’s 2011 political turmoil. The assaults also underscored the fragility of the Yemeni military and the failure of the current leadership to meet longtime demands to restructure the military.

Yemen’s Supreme Security Committee, headed by the country’s president, issued a statement listing 10 al-Qaida militants as top perpetrators of the attacks, and vowing to bring “criminal, coward and terrorist elements to justice.”

Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished country, has been struggling for years with al-Qaida’s local branch, also known as the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The group has been waging a campaign of violence against Yemen’s military, including assassinations of security officers and government officials in suicide attacks or drive-by shootings.

The branch came to be considered by Washington as one of the world’s most dangerous terror groups after a series of attempted attacks on American soil. After being uprooted from southern town its took over in 2011, the group has suffered some heavy blows, with a U.S. campaign of drone strikes killing a string of its prominent figures. Near-daily U.S. drone attacks in the first week of August killed 34 suspected al-Qaida militants.

Friday’s attack suggested the group was trying to surge back. The simultaneous, 6 a.m. attacks in the southern province of Shabwa, a one-time al-Qaida stronghold, caught the security forces unprepared, said Maj. Nasser Mohammed, who is with a unit in the area. The attacks took place in a remote region, about 500 kilometers (312 miles) southeast of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, he said.

Militants were dressed up in military uniforms and drove cars with army license plates, another military official said. They struck just at the transition between guard shifts, indicated they had information on the force’s work schedules, the official said.

The militants targeted three military and Central Security encampments and posts, two in the town of al-Mayfaa, and the third in the al-Ain area several miles away. The area is close to the Balhaf liquefied gas export terminal on the Arabian Sea coast, a second military official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

The military officials said 38 people were killed in the attacks. One suicide car bomber in al-Mayfaa rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the Interior Ministry’s al-Kamp Central Security camp, after militants overpowered the guards. Most of the causalities were in this camp, which serves as a base for forces in charge of guarding oil wells and the gas terminal. Clashes at the other al-Mayfaa site left at least five troops wounded, Nasser added.

Meanwhile, a car bomb was detonated prematurely outside the gates of the third site, the post in al-Ain. The blast was followed by heavy clashes during which militants seized six soldiers and a number of military vehicles. Eight militants were killed in the fighting at al-Ain, Nasser said.

Friday’s attacks came just days after Yemeni authorities warned of more al-Qaida attacks and suicide bombings. Over the past two weeks, security was beefed up in the capital after tips that militants planned attacks on vital installations and foreigners.

Al-Qaida-linked militants took advantage of the political unrest in Yemen following the 2011 uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, to reinforce their presence in the country’s mostly lawless south and seize several cities and towns there.

In a major offensive backed by the U.S. military, Yemen’s army was able to regain control of large parts of the south last year. Militants scattered into different mountainous areas. Saleh was ousted in 2012. His successor, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, removed Saleh’s relatives in the Republican Guard forces and other key units in the military. But he has so far failed to carry out broader reforms purging Saleh loyalists from the military and other government posts, a move experts say is needed to improve the armed forces sand security.

Sanaa-based researcher in Islamic movements, Ziad al-Salami, said Friday’s attacks were a “strong message” from al-Qaida. “Al-Qaida is trying to show that it still carries weight on the ground,” he said. “Yemen needs to speed up reforms of the military and break the current political stalemate.”

Al-Salami said al-Qaida militants are now present in four major Yemeni provinces — Shabwa, Abyan, Hadramawt and Jouf, bordering Saudi Arabia. “This belt is a strategic one because it’s the region where oil is concentrated, and where Yemen has a long coastal line,” al-Salami said. “All of Yemen’s wealth is there. The military must be in control.”

Yemen’s al-Qaida franchise has also been blamed for directing a string of unsuccessful bomb plots against Americans. Those included a foiled plan to down a U.S.-bound airliner using a new, sophisticated explosive to be hidden in the bomber’s underwear, and a plot to send mail bombs on planes to the U.S. hidden in the toner cartridges of computer printers.

Yemen: Fightings for Zinjibar continue

12 September 2011

Despite the fact that the Yemeni puppet president Saleh claimed victory over the Mujahideen in the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Abyan, the fightings in Zinjibar continue.

According to the news agency Xinhua, not less than 3 puppet soldiers were killed and another four wounded on Sunday in a mine explosion against a military convoy of the Saleh’s regime. The explosion was carried out by the Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

One of the officers of the Yemeni regime told the news agency that the bomb had detonated on eastern outskirts of the city of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, which is currently under siege by combined American, Saudi Arabian and Saleh’s troops.

“A landmine exploded when an army convoy was heading to the Amodia area”, said the army officer of the 119th tank brigade.

At the same time, the Chinese news agency reports that a source close to Al-Qaeda allegedly said that the Mujahideen had promised to begin a guerrilla warfare which would cover the whole territory of the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

Meanwhile France-Presse refuted the Saleh’s lie about the capture of Zinjibar. According to the agency, units of local puppets control at the moment only the northern and the eastern parts of Zinjibar.

In addition, fierce fightings between the Mujahideen al-Qaeda and puppet soldiers did not abate throughout Sunday in Zinjibar, although the infidelity-enforcement thugs earlier argued that most of the Islamic fighters allegedly fled the city and moved to a nearby Jaar which is controlled by the Mujahideen since March.

According to the officer, puppets are hesitant to enter the city center.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/12/15112.shtml.

Yemen: Mujahideen of al-Qaeda captured another town in fighting

7 September 2011

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula liberated another town, Rowda, on Tuesday.

It is located in the southeastern province of Shabwa, next to the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

It is to be recalled that the AP reported that the city was already under the control of the Mujahideen. But apparently it was not under the full control, and only a group of the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda was present in the town.

Xinhua report referring to provincial police of the Saleh’s regime that Rowda is located a few kilometers from a base of the French company TOTAL, which is engaged in illegal extraction of natural gas in Yemen.

Another puppet official said that there had been heavy fightings for Rowda, and the Saleh’s troops were supported by combat aviation, but the puppets were forced to retreat under the attacks from the Mujahideen.

For obvious reasons, the Democratic media report very scanty and partial information about the success of the Mujahideen.

It is now known that the Mujahideen started to move towards the port town of Balhaf. The fighters of al-Qaida intend to besiege the Saleh’s troops, who are guarding the headquarters of the French natural gas production giant corporation TOTAL, said a puppet official.

It is to be recalled Shabwa, which is located about 458 km south-east of the capital Sana’a, is yet another bastion of al-Qaeda along with the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

It is also a home to a famous Islamic preacher Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki.

In the province of Shabwa which borders the IEA, Saleh’s military units have been already fighting with the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda, for several months (since May 29).

More recently, the puppets have taken a massive offensive against the Mujahideen, but thanks to a coordinated action of the Islamic fighters, it was repulsed.

Now the IEA has under its control the towns of Zinjibar (the capital of the Islamic Emirate), Shaqra, and Jaar, as well as large parts of the coastal area of Dovis.

Xinhua added referring to spy sources of Saleh’s regime that the fighters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula increase the intensity of attacks on Saleh’s troops, stationed in the province Lahj near the border with the Abyan, thus preventing the transfer of soldiers from the largest military base in Yemen, al-Anad, located in the province, to Abyan and Shabwa to support local puppet forces.

Meanwhile, Eurasia Review reports that the puppets once again conducted air strikes on the town of Jaar. They bombed a mosque. As a result, 31 peaceful Muslims martyred.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/07/15081.shtml.

Yemen: Mujahideen enter capital of Lahj province. Fightings intensify in Abyan

2 September 2011

The Mujahideen of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are prepared to liberate another province in the south, Lahj. That was claimed by local high-ranking puppet officials, reports the Yemen Post.

According to them, several large units of Mujahideen from neighboring Abyan have recently entered Lahj. In the ongoing battles in the Emirate of Abyan, al-Qaeda regrouped its forces and directed them to neighboring provinces.

On the streets of the town of Howtah, the provincial capital of Lahj, there were dozens of Islamic fighters last Friday. According to the CNN, at least 100 Mujahideen of al-Qaeda were present there.

However, the provincial puppets are in no hurry to offer any resistance to AQAP:

“We have not received orders from the government to arrest any suspects, but the interior ministry is focusing on this issue with great concern”, said a provincial official.

In turn, residents of the province confirmed that representatives of the regime do not hinder the movement of forces of al-Qaeda to Lahj. Among the residents, there are rumors that the “administration” of the province is preparing for a major exodus, as it was in Abyan.

It is to be recalled that government officials of the Saleh’s regime, along with its security and military forces, left the Islamic Emirate of Abyan, for fear of bloody fightings with the al-Qaeda Mujahideen, who had been already for some time on the outskirts of Zinjibar.

Such a scenario could happen again. Earlier, the Mujahideen stormed the capital of Lahj, the town of Howtah.

Then the Islamic fighters took control over several administrative buildings and a radio station. However, they left the town later, for tactical reasons.

The situation for the puppet regime in this province is complicated by the fact that most people of Lahj defected and joined protesters against Saleh.

Meanwhile, a complicated situation, as claimed by western media, is also formed on the outskirts of Zinjibar, the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

France-Presse reported, with reference to the Yemeni puppet security forces, that the Saleh’s military regime allegedly seized the main approaches to the city and are heading to the center.

During a large-scale offensive, the apostates from the 201st and 209th brigades managed to join the 25th mechanized brigade, which had been besieged for months by the Mujahideen.

The Saleh’s military command said that the army had occupied a football stadium, Al-Wahda, earlier liberated by the Mujahideen. However, the claims of the puppets and Western media reports were not confirmed by independent sources.

Severe battles are taking place for the town. Minions are facing strong resistance from the Mujahideen. As a result of the fighting, about 15 Mujahideen martyred, a source claimed to AFP. In this war, the puppets exaggerated the number of martyred Mujahideen exactly 2 times, claiming that 30 Mujahideen had martyred (Insha’Allah). The puppets gave no information about their own fatalities.

It is to be recalled that according to the opinion of doctors working in hospitals in Abyan, the Saleh’s regime routinely exaggerates the number of casualties among the Mujahideen.

For example, recently, representatives of the puppet police stated that during the fighting in the Islamic Emirate of Abyan in May alone, up to 300 Mujahideen martyred. The puppets claimed their own fatalities as only 183 soldiers.

However, the experts say that these figures are unreliable. Thus, an expert and political scientist Ali Al-Jarad indicates the discrepancy between the figures that are periodically released by the structures of the puppet regime.

Thus, in February, a so-called “foreign minister” Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said that “just a couple of hundred fighters of al-Qaeda” remain in Yemen.

“If we take in consideration what the “foreign minister” said earlier this year and what the “interior ministry” announced … there are supposedly no more al Qaeda fighters in Yemen”, the expert said.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/02/15055.shtml.