Al-Qaida gunmen kill 3 Yemeni military officials in Marib

Map of Yemen showing Ma'rib governorate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SANAA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida militants killed three Yemeni military officials in an ambush Saturday in the country's oil-producing province of Marib, officials said.

"General Nasser Mahdi Farid, the chief-of-staff of the central military region in Marib, and two other military officers were killed when their convoy was intercepted and attacked by militants of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)," an interior ministry official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

About 11 soldiers who escorted the convoy were seriously injured with gunshots in the attack, said the official.

The AQAP confirmed the attack in a statement obtained by Xinhua, saying that "the Mujahideen set up an ambush in al-Dhameen area against a military convoy en route to Safer area, killing the convoy's commander General Nasser Mahdi Farid and several others."

"The al-Qaida fighters also seized two vehicles of the military convoy," it said.

The attack, which took place near Wadi Abida area of the northeastern province of Marib, came one day after tribal gunmen of the same area bombed the country's main oil export pipeline for the fifth time in less than a month.

The army on Friday launched a major assault on the area's tribesmen whom the local authorities accused of repeatedly attacking the main crude line, according to the officials.

The government has failed to repair the line due to continuing conflicts in Marib, highlighting the persistent insecurity in the country even one year after a political upheaval.

U.S. drones and Yemeni warplanes have regularly targeted the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing, which exploited security vacuum during Yemen's unrest last year. Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said fighting the AQAP tops his daily agenda when he was elected in February.

from XINHUA
2012-12-09 05:53:20
Editor: Mu Xuequan

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AQAP launches complex suicide assault on Yemeni Army base

By Bill Roggio - October 19, 2012 - LWJ

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula mounted a complex attack, which included suicide bombers and an assault from the sea, against a Yemeni Army base in Shaqra in the south of the country today.

map by Evan Centanni (www.polgeonow.com)

AQAP launched the first wave of the attack on the headquarters of the 115th Infantry Brigade at dawn. At least four AQAP fighters dressed in military uniforms, armed with assault rifles and suicide vests, drove a pickup truck bearing military license plates through several checkpoints. Three of the fighters then dismounted the truck and opened fire on Yemeni troops, while the driver of the truck drove into a group of soldiers and detonated the explosives-packed vehicle. Another group of AQAP fighters then launched an assault on the base from the sea but was beaten back by Yemeni troops.

Fourteen Yemeni soldiers, including the brigade's operations officer and two staff colonels, were killed during the fighting and in the blasts;12 AQAP fighters were also killed during the assault.

From May 2011 until May of this year, when the Yemeni military, backed by US air and intelligence assets, began retaking control of the south, AQAP controlled Shaqra and many other cities and towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces. AQAP and the Yemeni military fought pitched battles in these provinces before AQAP withdrew its forces and regrouped in areas such as Jaar and Al Mahfad.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/aqap_launches_comple.php#ixzz29peituL9

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Yemen security forces foil plot to carry out 10 suicide bombings in Sana’a

Yemeni security forces have foiled a plot to carry out 10 suicide bombings against government buildings in the capital Sana’a, the defense ministry’s news website reported on Monday.

A wave of arrests targeting a suspected al-Qaeda cell held responsible for a May attack that killed more than 100 soldiers in the capital netted the 10 militants charged with carrying out the bombings, the 26sep.net website quoted “informed sources” as saying.

The arrests “foiled 10 terrorist suicide bombings in the capital Sana’a which the group was planning to carry out against several government facilities,” it reported, according to AFP.

Security services have also found the last testament of the May 21 bomber, who was less than 18 years old, 26sep.net added.

National security chief Ali Mohammed al-Ansi said in comments published by the ministry’s 26 September newspaper on Thursday that the security forces had made multiple arrests.

They followed the announcement on June 20 of the arrest of Majed al-Qulaisi, a suspected member of the cell that planned the May attack against troops rehearsing for a military parade.

Ansi vowed to continue the “hunt” for al-Qaeda fighters, saying security forces have carried out a “series of operations against al-Qaeda terrorists” across Yemen.

Last month, Yemeni troops recaptured a string of al-Qaeda bastions across the troubled south and east where the militants had seized control last year.

Separately, Yemen’s state news agency SABA reported that Saudi Arabia plans to reopen its embassy in Sana’a, which was closed after the kidnapping of Abdullah al-Khalidi, Saudi Arabia’ deputy consul in the Yemeni port city of Aden. SABA cited a telephone call between King Abdullah and Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday night in which the Saudi king reportedly said he would soon order the opening of the embassy in the Yemeni capital, according to Reuters.

The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as Islamist fighters, emboldened by political instability in Yemen, went on a rampage in the south of the country.

Hundreds of militants have been on the run since U.S.-backed Yemeni forces drove them out of towns and cities they had seized last year.

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

By Al Arabiya with Agencies
Monday, 02 July 2012

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Five al-Qaida members escape from Yemeni jail

SANAA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Up to five al-Qaida operatives escaped from a Yemeni prison on Tuesday, the country's official Saba news agency reported.

"Five detainees of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) managed early Tuesday to flee from the prison of the political security agency in the country's northwestern port city of al- Hodayda," Saba quoted a provincial security official as saying.

Several members of the Yemeni al-Qaida offshoot were recently either captured or hunted by the Yemeni security authorities after a U.S.-backed offensive in the southern Abyan province routed the militants out of their strongholds they controlled for nearly a year during a security vacuum in the country.

Saba did not provide further details about how the terrorist prisoners escaped, but a security official told Xinhua that "they escaped the highly-guarded jail through a 30-meter-long tunnel they dug from their cell to a nearby cemetery."

The incident came two days after 10 al-Qaida suspects escaped from a prison in the southern port city of Aden.

Combating al-Qaida militants in the restive south is one of the challenges confronting current Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has promised to launch a national dialogue to settle disputes among all political factions and uproot the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida.

from XINHUA
2012-06-27 07:30:05

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Yemeni airstrikes kill 23 al-Qaida militants in south

Map by Evan Centanni. (www.polgeonow.com)

ADEN, Yemen, June 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 23 al-Qaida militants were killed in airstrikes by Yemeni fighter jets in the southern province of Abyan on Wednesday evening, a security official said.

The Yemeni fighter jets bombed an al-Qaida convoy in a desert valley near the Mahfad town in Abyan province, leaving at least 23 militants killed and several others injured, the local security official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"Two military aircrafts bombed the al-Qaida convoy with four rockets, destroying three pick-up trucks and killing all the passengers on board," the security official said.

"Senior commanders of the al-Qaida terror group were believed to have been killed in Wednesday's air bombing. The injured militants were taken to an al-Qaida-run hospital west of Mahfad," he added.

Yemen's military presses a withering assault aiming at quelling a resurgent branch of al-Qaida which has increased its attacks on both Western and government targets in the Arabian Peninsula state.

The month-long army offensive forced the al-Qaida militants to flee several bastions in the country's restive southern and eastern provinces which they captured during last year's political turmoil.

The al-Qaida militants remain in control of the smaller town of Mahfad in Abyan and other cities in neighboring Shabwa province.

Fighting al-Qaida militants in restive south is one of several challenges confronting current President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has promised to launch a national dialogue to settle disputes between all political factions. Also, he has sworn to uproot the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida.

from XINHUA
2012-06-21 02:28:48

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Yemeni troops clash with al-Qaida militants in south, 39 killed

ADEN, Yemen, June 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 33 al-Qaida militants and six army soldiers were killed during intensive clashes in Yemen's southern province of Abyan early Monday, a government official said.

The Yemeni army troops have managed to regain control over several villages nearby al-Qaida-held town of Jaar after intensive clashes with fighters of the terrorist group, leaving at least 25 militants and six soldiers killed, the local government official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The al-Qaida militants failed to confront the army push and ceded their sites in Hassin, Rawa and two other villages on the outskirts of Jaar town," the government official said.

"Army soldiers are now patrolling the villages near Jaar and resized two tanks along with other military vehicles form the al- Qaida," he added.

An army commander said that the Yemeni air forces hit al-Qaida compound in downtown Jaar late on Sunday night, with no immediate reports of casualties.

Pro-government militiamen and troops of the elite Republican Guard force attacked al-Qaida militants on Monday outside the coastal town of Shakra on the Gulf of Aden, which is under al-Qaid 's control, according to tribal sources.

"About eight al-Qaida militants were killed and six troops were wounded in battles along a main road that links Shakra with Wadea town in Abyan," the source said.

The Yemeni government troops have stepped up military operations in Abyan in order to oust al-Qaida militants who have seized control of large swaths in the restive south during last year's political turmoil.

Government troops and reinforcements of counter-terrorism units assembled by the Yemeni military began last month offensives on al- Qaida bastions in Abyan, which made living conditions of thousands of displaced residents worsened.

Senior leaders of the Yemeni military, with support of U.S. counter-terrorism experts, have vowed to uproot the al-Qaida's regional bases from Yemen.

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Yemen's army says recaptured rebel positions

(Reuters) - The Yemeni army battled al Qaeda-linked militants deep inside Zinjibar on Saturday, recapturing key positions inside the southern rebel-held city and killing at least 62 Islamist fighters, including Somalis, a military official said.

The official said three government soldiers died and four were wounded in the fighting, part of an offensive that began earlier this month to uproot Islamist militants from southern Yemen.

He said many of the dead militants were Somalis, but gave no precise figures.

Al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law)have exploited last year's popular protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-years in office and captured large swathes of territory in the province of Abyan, including the provincial capital Zinjibar.

The expansion of the militants' area of control has unsettled the United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of failed attacks by Yemen's al Qaeda wing which earlier this week claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Sanaa on Monday that killed more than 100 soldiers.

Both countries have been pushing new Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Hadi Mansour, who took over after Saleh stepped down in February, to unite the army and roll back the militants' gains.

Washington considers Qaeda in Yemen, which has attracted foreign fighters from places like Somalia and Saudi Arabia, the world's most active terror cell.

Yemeni forces last week recaptured parts of the strategic city of Zinjibar and fought militants in the city of Jaar, another militant stronghold, leaving 33 militants and nine soldiers dead.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Sophie Hares)

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AQAP commander thought killed in US drone strike

By Bill Roggio - April 24, 2012 - LWJ

A senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader who trained at a camp in Afghanistan more than a decade ago was killed in a recent airstrike in southern Yemen. The airstrike is one of two thought to have been carried out by US-operated unmanned strike aircraft over the past several days.

Mohammed Saeed al Umda (also known as Ghareeb al Taizi) is said to be among three AQAP members believed to have been killed in an April 22 drone strike on a convoy in the Al Samadah area, near the border of Marib and Al Jawf provinces, a senior Yemeni official told The Long War Journal.

US officials contacted by The Long War Journal would neither confirm or deny the strike, but one intelligence official said that al Umda "has been in our crosshairs." Airstrikes in Yemen on moving targets such as convoys are typically carried out by the CIA or the US military.

The US officials could not confirm his death. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its political front, Ansar al Sharia, have not released a martyrdom statement announcing his death.

The Yemeni official said that al Umda provided "logistical and financial support" and "commanded a number of AQAP military operations in Yemen." Al Umda has also been featured prominently in AQAP's propaganda.

Al Umda attended the Al Farouq military training camp in Afghanistan before the downfall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Al Farouq was one of al Qaeda's primary training facilities in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. Foreign recruits were shuttled to the camp, where they were given training on light arms and other basic instruction. Those who were selected for operations in the West or elsewhere were sent to other specialized training camps. Other recruits were selected to fight alongside the Taliban in al Qaeda's Arab 055 Brigade.

Al Umda was involved in the October 2002 suicide attack on the French oil tanker Limburg. He was convicted by a Yemeni court and imprisoned in 2005. In February 2006, he was among 23 al Qaeda operatives to escape from a prison in Sana'a. The Yemeni official said that al Umda is listed as the fourth-most-wanted man in Yemen.

In a second drone strike yesterday in Shabwa province, three AQAP fighters were killed, according to The Associated Press. The unmanned Predators or Reapers fired missiles at a pickup truck traveling in the province. No senior AQAP commanders or operatives were reported to have been killed.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/04/aqap_commander_thoug.php#ixzz1t2S1PkKq

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