Yemen blames al-Qaeda for troop deaths

Source : Trend.Az

Suspected Al-Qaeda fighters have killed five Yemeni soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint southeast of Sanaa, according to an official, while two assailants have reportedly been killed, Aljazeera reported.

The attack on Saturday targeted an army checkpoint in the district of Rada, where the interior ministry said it had mounted security measures late on Friday following intelligence about possible attacks by al-Qaeda fighters.

Five soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in the attack, the local government official told AFP news agency, adding that some assailants were also killed.

The Sep.net news website, which is linked to the defence ministry, said two armed men died in the exchange of fire.

In other unrest, unidentified assailants suspected of being al-Qaeda fighters shot dead an army intelligence local chief in the southern city of Mukalla, a security official said.

Two armed men on a motorbike opened fire on Brigadier-General Ali Ahmed Abdelrazzaq outside his home in the coastal city, the official said.

Al-Qaeda loyalists seized large swathes of south and east Yemen in 2011, taking advantage of a decline in central government control during an 11-month uprising that forced veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in 2012.

Government forces have since recaptured much of the territory with support from US drone strikes, but the fighters retain bases in the desert east.

Meanwhile, thousands of separatists in south Yemen demonstrated in Aden to commemorate the 1994 war which ended with northern forces overrunning the south ending a secession attempt against the republic that was unified in 1990.

Al-Qaida gunmen assassinate military intelligence official in Yemen

Source : Xinhua

ADEN, Yemen, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Masked gunmen of the Yemen- based al- Qaida offshoot shot dead a high-ranking military intelligence official in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Saturday, a government official told Xinhua.

About two masked gunmen riding a motorbike fired at Colonel Ahmed Abdul-Razzak, director of the military intelligence department in Hadramout province, the local government official said on condition of anonymity.

"Criminals of the al-Qaida terrorist group committed a criminal act and assassinated Col. Abdul-Razzak on a main road near his home in the coastal town of Mukalla," the government source said.

Yemeni security services have repeatedly blamed militants of the Yemen- based al-Qaida offshoot for a series of assassination attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and its neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

The AQAP underscores the challenges faced by Yemeni President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who came to power after winning support from major Yemeni political forces in February 2012.

Hadi is tasked with restoring security and stability to Yemen and putting an end to the growing influence of al-Qaida that also threatens daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Al-Qaida attack foiled in SE Yemen

Source : Xinhua

ADEN, Yemen, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's security authorities foiled an al- Qaida terrorist plot in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Wednesday, a government official told Xinhua.

Two al-Qaida members were captured while they were attempting to blow up a police center in Mukalla city, Hadramout's provincial capital, the local government official said on condition of anonymity.

"Security officers received an intelligence tip that some al- Qaida suspects were planning to detonate an explosive device near a police center in Mukalla," the source said.

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

The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and its neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

The AQAP underscores the challenges faced by Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who came to power last February after winning support from major Yemeni political forces, the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Hadi is tasked with restoring security and stability to Yemen and putting an end to growing influence of al-Qaida that also threatens daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen court sentences 11 al-Qaida militants

Source : Yahoo!

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Yemeni court has sentenced 11 alleged al-Qaida militants to up to 10 years in prison for forming armed gangs to destabilize the country and planning attacks on foreign embassies as well as army and security forces.

Ahmed al-Hababi, one of the defendants, threatened to kill the judge, shouting in the courtroom, "we will teach you a lesson and we will drag you on the ground." Two others raised al-Qaida's flag inside the defendants' cage in the court in Sanaa. Still others shouted "God is great" in Arabic.

Also on Tuesday, a court in Aden began trying nine Yemenis — one in absentia — who were arrested in January in the country's territorial waters trying to smuggle Iranian-made weapons on a ship. The trial was adjourned until April 30.

US drone strike kills two alleged al-Qaeda members in Yemen

Source : Al Akhbar English

Two men suspected of being al-Qaeda members were killed on Sunday in a US drone strike on a site allegedly used for training members of the Islamist network in central Yemen, a security official and witnesses said.

The raid targeted a house in Wadi Abida, in the central province of Marib, where the two unnamed militants were killed, the official said, requesting anonymity. He added that a weapons cache was destroyed on the site.

Yemeni officials often claim al-Qaeda militants have been struck by airstrikes, but this is difficult to independently verify.

Witnesses said an unmanned drone conducted the air raid, just like in most US air strikes that target al-Qaeda suspects in the Yemen. The reported strike was the second in less than a week against suspected members of al-Qaeda.

The United States does not usually comment on strikes by its pilotless aircraft in Yemen. The Yemeni government tolerates such strikes but also usually does not comment on the US role in specific incidents.

Last week, an al-Qaeda leader and four militants were killed in a US drone strike on their vehicle south of Yemen's capital Sanaa.

In January, Yemeni sources said a US drone killed at least six suspected al-Qaeda members in a strike on their vehicle in northern Yemen.

Washington has stepped up attacks on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – considered by Western governments to be one of the most dangerous arms of the global militant network.

The group took advantage of widespread anti-government protests in 2011 to seize swathes of territory in the southern part of Yemen, before being driven back in a US-backed offensive in June last year.

US drones strikes in the impoverished Arab country nearly tripled in 2012 compared with 2011, from 18 to 53, according to the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank.

In February, the White House defended drone strikes against al-Qaeda suspects, calling them legal, ethical and wise and insisting that they complied with US law and the constitution.

However, Yemeni tribesmen have taken to the streets in the past to denounce the killing of innocent civilians by drones.

(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Al-Qaida kills 2 Yemeni soldiers in revenge attack

Source : Xinhua

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.

Guantanamo inmate relatives protest in Yemen

Source :  Al Akhbar English

Activists and relatives of around 90 Yemeni detainees held in Guantanamo Bay protested outside the US Embassy in Sanaa on Monday to demand the prisoners' release after more than a decade in detention.

Yemenis make up the largest contingent of the 166 detainees held at the US naval base in Cuba. Most were detained in Afghanistan following the 2001 US invasion.

Rights activist and protester Abdel-Rahman Barman said conditions at the prison are "very poor" and that at least two of the men there are on hunger strike.

They are among some 33 prisoners whom the US military says went on hunger strike, including three who were hospitalized for dehydration.

The prisoners say that they have been denied water and that the air conditioning was being kept frigid to punish them during a hunger strike. The military disputes the claims and says prisoners are also offered bottled water.

The largest of Guantanamo's hunger strikes began in the summer of 2005 and reached a peak of around 131 prisoners, when the facility held about 500 detainees. The US military broke the protest by strapping detainees down and force-feeding them a liquid nutrient mix to prevent them from starving themselves to death.

An embassy employee was seen accepting a letter from relatives of the detainees who protested on Monday. The embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.

The latest hunger strike began on February 6. It was prompted by what the prisoners considered more intrusive searches of their cells and of the Qurans that each man is issued by the government, as well as the more general complaint of their open-ended confinement without charge.

The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a delegation to Guantanamo in late March, but its observations on the living conditions of the hunger strikers have not been made public so far.

Seven apparent suicides have taken place at the prison. The latest was a 32 -year-old Yemeni in September who had been held there for around 10 years. Two others were determined to have died from natural causes.

Yemen's government has requested its nationals in Guantanamo Bay prison be sent to Sanaa, and has suggested rehabilitating the detainees if they disavow militancy – a policy used with dozens of Saudis who were repatriated to their country.

Washington argues that Yemen, where al-Qaeda is active, is too unstable to prevent former prisoners from engaging in militant activities.

President Barack Obama had pledged to shutter the prison at Guantanamo soon after taking office but Congress opposed it, passing a law that prohibits the government from transferring Guantanamo prisoners to US soil and requiring security guarantees before they can be sent elsewhere in the world

Gunmen kill security officer in southeast Yemen

Source  :  Xinhua

ADEN, Yemen, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Unknown gunmen killed a security officer in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout Monday night, a military official told Xinhua.

Two masked terrorists riding a motorbike intercepted the car carrying the security officer who was on his way home in Ghail Bawazir region in Hadramout province. They gunned him down before fleeing the scene, the local military official said on condition of anonymity.

The officer was pronounced dead shortly after he was sent to a nearby hospital, he added.

The attackers who managed to escape have not yet been identified, but such attacks, increasingly frequent recently, have in the past been carried out by al-Qaida militants.

In January 2009, al-Qaida affiliates in Saudi Arabia and Yemen officially merged and formed Al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP). The group, mainly entrenching itself in Yemen's southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, is on the terrorist list of the United States, which considers it as an increasing threat to its national security.

The AQAP underscores the challenges faced by Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who won support from major Yemeni political forces, the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Hadi is tasked with restoring security and stability to Yemen and putting an end to the growing influence of al-Qaida that threatens daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.