Al-Qaida kills 2 Yemeni soldiers in revenge attack

SANAA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida militants raided a military checkpoint in Yemen's central province of Marib on Sunday, killing two soldiers and injuring seven others in an apparent retaliation to a U.S. drone strike earlier in the day, a government security report said.
"Five al-Qaida gunmen on board a car carried out a surprise attack on a military checkpoint of the 3rd Infantry Brigade in a road close to the earlier drone strike site, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others," said the report issued by the interior ministry.

"The attack took place in the afternoon in an apparent revenge to the earlier drone strike. The 3rd Infantry Brigade sent reinforcement one hour later and fired heavily toward farms in the edge of Wadi Abida area, where the militants are believed to hide in," it said.

Earlier in the day, a U.S. drone strike killed at least two militants and injured several others in a raid on a house of the suspected militants outside Wadi Abida in central Marib, some 170 km northeast of the capital Sanaa.

The air strike was the second in less than a week after another U.S. drone attack killed five militants in the nearby southern province of Dhamar on Wednesday, according to the Yemeni government officials.

Dozens of al-Qaida members have been killed in such airstrikes since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February 2012, after a year-long unrest weakened the control of the central government and allowed the militants to take over swaths of territory in the south. The Yemeni government managed to recapture several of those southern cities in May 2012.

On Jan. 23, a U.S. drone strike targeting armed militants mistakenly hit a house of civilians in Yemen's southeastern province of al-Bayda, killing two children, according to Yemeni officials.

from XINHUA
by Editor: Mu Xuequan
2013-04-21 23:13:49

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U.S. drone strike kills 2 militants in Yemen

SANAA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. drone strike killed at least two al-Qaida suspects in Yemen's central province of Marib on Sunday, an interior ministry official said.
"Two unidentified men were killed when a drone strike hit a gathering of militants in a house in a remote area outside Wadi Abida in Marib province on Sunday," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The militants used to gather in farms under the cover of trees and they heard the sound of the drone hours earlier," the official said, adding "The trees make it difficult for drones to accurately hit targets."

"No further details, but part of the house was on fire," he said.

The air strike was the second in less than a week after another U.S. drone killed five militants in the nearby southern province of Dhamar on Wednesday, according to the Yemeni government officials.

Dozens of al-Qaida members have been killed in such airstrikes since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February 2012, after a year-long unrest weakened the control of the central government and allowed the militants to take over swaths of territory in the south. The Yemeni government managed to recapture several of those southern cities in May 2012.

But on Jan. 23, a U.S. drone strike targeting armed militants mistakenly hit a house of civilians in Yemen's southeastern province of al-Bayda, killing two children, according to Yemeni officials.

from XINHUA
by Editor: Fang Yang
2013-04-21 19:09:32

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US drones strike again in Yemen, killing 6 AQAP fighters near capital

By Bill Roggio - January 23, 2013 - LWJ

US drones yet again targeted al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in Yemen, this time outside the capital of Sana'a. The strike today is the fourth by the US in Yemen in five days. The US has expanded the drone campaign throughout all of Yemen over the past year.

The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers attacked a vehicle as it traveled in a rural area outside of Sana'a, according to Reuters. Six AQAP members are said to have been killed in the attack. No senior AQAP fighters are reported to have been killed in today's strike.

US drones have struck AQAP in Sana'a one other time in the past. On Nov. 7, 2012, the remotely piloted attack aircraft killed Adnan al Qadhi, an al Qaeda commander who was involved in the attack on the US Embassy in Sana'a in 2008, along with two fighters. Al Qadhi commanded local AQAP forces in and around the capital at the time of his death.

Today's strike in Sana'a is the fourth in Yemen in five days, and the fifth strike this month. The US launched two strikes in Marib province on Jan. 19 and Jan. 21; two Saudis are reported to have been killed in the Jan. 19 attack. In another strike, on Jan. 22, the US killed four AQAP fighters in a strike on a vehicle in Al Jawf province in northern Yemen.

The US appears to be launching several strikes over a short period of time, followed by weeks in which no strikes occur. Between Dec. 24, 2012 and Jan. 3, 2013, the US conducted five drone strikes in Yemen. But prior to the Dec. 24 strike, the last recorded strike by the US in Yemen took place on Nov. 7, 2012.

Additionally, over the past eight months, the US has begun to target AQAP outside of the traditional strongholds of Abyan and Shabwah provinces in the south. Of the 25 strikes against AQAP since the beginning of June 2012 that have been recorded by The Long War Journal, only four have hit AQAP in Abyan and Shabwah. The other 21 strikes have targeted AQAP operatives in the provinces of Aden, Al Baydah, Al Jawf, Hadramout, Marib, Saada, and Sana'a. Of the 18 strikes that were conducted between January 2012 and the end of May, 10 occurred in Abyan and Shabwah.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/01/us_drones_strike_aga_5.php#ixzz2IsuOupXY

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• US drones strike again in Yemen, kill 6 AQAP fighters near capital (longwarjournal.org)

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Blast, drone kill 13 al Qaeda-linked militants in Yemen

(Reuters) - More than 10 suspected al Qaeda operatives were killed by an explosion in a house in south Yemen where they were making bombs and at least three others died in a drone strike, tribal and official sources said on Sunday.

A bomb ripped through a house in the province of al-Bayda on Saturday night, the state news agency Saba and a local official said. Three other suspected militants were killed in a drone strike in the central province of Maarib, also on Saturday, tribal sources and the Ministry of Defence said.
...
The house destroyed in al Bayda had been used for making bombs, an official from the area told Reuters on Sunday.

"We heard a massive explosion that terrified people and when we went to the house it was destroyed and everyone there was dead," the official said.

In Maarib, a pilotless plane carried out two strikes against a car, a witness said.

"One of the strikes missed the target and the other hit the car and left the bodies of the three people in it completely charred," the witness told Reuters by telephone from the area.

He said unidentified people evacuated the bodies while tribesmen blocked the main road linking the capital of Maarib province with Sanaa on Saturday after the strikes.

The Yemeni Defence Ministry said in an SMS text message that a number of militants were killed in two air strikes but gave no further details.
...
from REUTERS
SANAA | Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:52pm GMT
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Sami Aboudi, Alison Williams and Jason Webb)

---

from DAWN:

SANAA: Three US drone strikes killed eight people, including at least four suspected members of Al Qaeda, in the Yemen province of Marib, a tribal chief and witnesses said on Sunday.

One raid late on Saturday targeted a vehicle transporting four suspected members of the extremist network in Wadi Abida, east of the city of Marib, 170 kilometres east of Sanaa, the tribal source said.

“The bodies of the four dead were charred,” he said, requesting anonymity, adding that only the body of Ismail bin Jamil, a local Al Qaeda chief, was identified.

A witness said that car was engulfed in flames.

Another raid struck a vehicle in the same area killing four passengers from Al-Haytak clan, part of the Abida tribe, the source said without specifying their relation to Al Qaeda.

A raid earlier in the evening targeted another vehicle transporting four people, but a rocket missed the car allowing the passengers enough time to flee, a witness said.

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Al-Qaida suspects assassinate two senior army officials in Yemen's capital

map by Evan Centanni (www.polgeonow.com)

SANAA, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Two senior army officials were assassinated Tuesday by suspected al-Qaida gunmen in Yemeni capital Sanaa, an interior ministry official said.

Colonel Salem Ghorbani of the Republican Guards was shot dead near al-Sawad Military barracks in southern Sanaa early Tuesday.

Another official of the Defense Ministry, Brigadier Fadhel al- Zahairy, was gunned down 30 minutes later in Bab al-Yemen district in central Sanaa.

An interior ministry official said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida militants.

Both assassinations were carried out by masked gunmen on motorcycles, according to the official, who spoke to Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The incidents in Sanaa occurred simultaneously with a massive offensive launched by the Yemeni army against tribal saboteurs accused of attacking an oil export pipeline in the neighboring province of Marib.

A senior local tribal official in Marib told Xinhua earlier Tuesday that hundreds of al-Qaida militants were fighting alongside the tribal saboteurs.

The al-Qaida wing confirmed on its official media that its militants are engaging in the fierce battles against the army in Marib. The militants said in a statement obtained by Xinhua that they killed 14 soldiers last week in several ambushes and claimed responsibility for killing a senior military officer along with 11 others in Marib on Dec. 8.

More than 15 army and security personnel have been assassinated in Sanaa since the beginning of this year by motor-riding attackers, for which the government authorities blame the local al- Qaida wing.

In October, unidentified gunmen in Sanaa killed an Iraqi counterterrorism adviser to the Yemeni Defense Ministry and a security coordinator between the Yemeni government and the U.S. embassy in Sanaa. The Interior Ministry's investigation reports blamed both assassination acts on al-Qaida.

Yemen has undergone a political transition led by President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the stepping down of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this year.

Restoring security has become Hadi's top priority after last year's unrest allowed the insurgent al-Qaida militants to control swaths of remote land and expand activities to major cities.

from XINHUA
2012-12-25 19:22:35
Editor: Lu Hui

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Al-Qaida bombs Yemen's LNG export pipeline

map by Evan Centanni (www.polgeonow.com)

SANAA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida militants on Sunday blew up a pipeline that transfers Yemen's liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Gulf of Aden export terminal, an interior ministry official told Xinhua.

The explosion took place in Asilan area of the southeast province of Shabwa, neighboring to the oil-rich province of Marib, where the country's main crude oil export pipeline was attacked by unidentified gunmen on Friday for the fifth time in less than a month.

"Al-Qaida fighters exploded a section of the LNG export pipeline in Asilan this morning," the official told Xinhua Sunday on condition of anonymity.

Local media confirmed the attack on the gas line in Asilan area.

The French-led LNG company resumed exporting gas last month after the pipeline was repaired following the previous attack on Oct. 30.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni army in Marib launched a fierce offensive Sunday against suspected hideouts of militants of Wadi Abida, whom the local authorities accused of repeatedly attacking the oil pipeline and killing senior military officials in an ambush on Saturday.

Independent Almasdaronline cited local tribesmen in Wadi Abida as saying that fighter jets stroke several houses and farms in the Wadi Abida area and killed a man identified as Saleh Maely. Local tribesmen said Maely has no links to any militants.

The Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said Saturday in a statement obtained by Xinhua that it ambushed a military convoy near the oil fields of Safer Saturday afternoon, killing commander General Nasser Mahdi Farid and several others.

The defense ministry reported that the death toll from Saturday 's attack in Marib against the military convoy increased to nine, including Farid, chief-of-staff of the central military command in Marib.

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 18:21:58

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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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US drones kill 4 AQAP fighters in Yemen

By Bill Roggio - October 21, 2012 - LWJ

US drones killed four al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in a strike in southern Yemen, in the second such attack in the country in four days.

The unmanned Predators or Reapers fired several missiles at a vehicle as it was traveling in the Wadi Abida area in Marib province tonight, officials said according to The Yemen Post.

An AQAP operative known as Sanad Oraidan al Okailim, whose brother was killed in Abyan province earlier this year, was among the four people killed in the nighttime attack, according to the Yemeni news service. A second vehicle arrived at the scene following the strike and its occupants removed the bodies of those killed.

The strike tonight was certainly carried out by the US-operated Predators or Reapers. Earlier this month, Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi admitted that the nighttime strikes were carried out by the US "because the Yemeni Air Force cannot carry out missions at night."

Today's drone strike is the second in Yemen in four days, and the third this month. In the last strike, on Oct. 18, the US killed Nadir Haider Nasser al Shaddadi and eight other fighters in an attack on a compound outside of Jaar in Abyan province.

On Oct. 4, the drones fired several missiles at a vehicle as it was traveling in the Maqbala area in Shabwa province, killing four "heavily armed" al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives. A Yemeni journalist who is closely tied to AQAP later reported that Sheikh Abu Zubeir 'Adil al'Abab, AQAP's senior sharia official and the fourth-most important leader in the group, was killed in that strike.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/us_drones_kill_4_aqa.php#ixzz2A1MtyQK4

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Yemen's export gas pipeline blown up by al-Qaida suspects

English: Map showing the location of the Gulf of Aden, located between Yemen and Somalia. Nearby bodies of water include the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen suspected of belonging to the al-Qaida terrorist group blew up a gas pipeline that transfers Yemen's liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Belhaf export terminal in the south early Tuesday, a security official told Xinhua.

The main pipeline, which transports supplies of gas to Yemen's Belhaf export terminal in the Gulf of Aden, was bombed by a squad of al-Qaida assailants in Safir oil-fields in eastern Maarib province, the local security official said on condition of anonymity.

Improvised explosive devices and remote-controlled bombs exploded underneath the gas pipeline in the oil-producing Maarib province, causing a huge explosion at the area, the security official said.

Tuesday's bombing comes days after the pipeline was repaired following a previous attack that occurred in neighboring Shabwa province.

On Saturday, Yemen LNG had announced that the pipeline had been repaired after an armed attack by al-Qaida suspects in August.

The 320-km pipeline, linking oil-producing Marib province to Belhaf LNG export facility in Yemen's restive south, has been repeatedly targeted by al-Qaida operatives.

Oil revenues make up more than 70 percent of the state budget, while oil and gas products account for over 90 percent of Yemen's exports.

Yemen's oil production rapidly declined from more than 400,000 barrels per day at the beginning of the past decade to the current 270,000 barrels per day.

Despite the army reinforcements and high security measures at the country's oil projects, al-Qaida militants have attacked the main LNG pipeline several times in recent months.


from XINHUA
2012-09-04 16:46:14

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U.S. drone strike kills 3 al-Qaida members in eastern Yemen

SANAA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed when a U.S. unmanned warplane targeted a car carrying al-Qaida suspects in Yemen's eastern province of Marib on Tuesday, a provincial security official said.

"An American drone fired a missile on a vehicle carrying al- Qaida members near Alabr region in the eastern part of Marib province on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least three people," the official told Xinhua by phone, asking not to be named.

"One of the killed was a wanted Saudi national who joined al- Qaida group in Yemen one year ago," said the official.

"The U.S. air raid was coordinated with the Yemeni intelligence agency," he added without elaborating further.

Marib, some 170 km east of the capital Sanaa, is the home to one of Yemen's major oil fields.

The United States has beefed up anti-terror cooperation with the Yemeni government since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February, after a year of political upheaval that allowed al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to capture several cities in the eastern and southern parts of the country.

The militants were recently either captured or hunted by the security authorities after a U.S.-backed offensive in June routed the militants out of their strongholds in the southern province of Abyan.

Combating al-Qaida network is one of the challenges confronting Hadi, who has promised to reform the army, restore security and uproot the resurgent branch of al-Qaida, locally known as Ansar al- Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law).

from XINHUA

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3 al-Qaida militants killed in air strike in eastern Yemen

SANAA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni air forces raided a suspected al-Qaida convoy in the eastern province of Marib on Sunday, killing at least three militants, the defense ministry said.

"The raid targeted three vehicles carrying militants of the terrorist al-Qaida network in the desert area of Sanda in Marib on Sunday afternoon, killing at least three militants and destroying two of the vehicles," the ministry said Sunday night in a statement on its website.

Yemen's air forces, with support of U.S. drones, have recently intensified raids against targets of al-Qaida insurgents in Yemen' s southern and eastern regions, where the al-Qaida took over control of some towns since May 2011, after the outbreak of mass anti-government protests.

Marib, some 150 km east of the capital Sanaa, is home to most of the country's oil and gas stockpiles.

Earlier in the day, Yemen's Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Company said it has resumed operations after repairing its feed pipeline transporting gas from Marib to Belhaf terminal in the southeastern province of Shabwa, which was bombed by suspected al-Qaida militants last month.

The interior ministry has said Tuesday that it ordered to tighten up security around oil and gas facilities as a precautionary measure against potential terrorist attacks.

The Yemeni government is dependent on oil production, with oil and gas export accounting for about 63 percent of the impoverished country's budget.

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