While US is busy in removing Alqaeda’s threat from Afghanistan and Pakistan (not sure how much they have achieved in 10 years), and now AQ has seized a city in Yemen.
While Americans are bombing the hell out of Libya in the guise of NATO, but they are quiet in the case of Syria and Yemen (where their cronies I mean allies are ruling) and they have killed about 1000 civilians each. Maybe Oil is the keyword here, anyways 10 years of WOT and now AQ has spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Yemen, and North Africa. I must say Americans a job well done!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/29/yemeni-president-tribal-leader-reach-ceasefire-agreement/
Suspected Al Qaeda Gunmen Reportedly Seize Yemeni City
Suspected Al Qaeda gunmen have overrun the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar after heavy clashes with security forces left 16 dead, an official told AFP Sunday.
Two other officials said that fighting raged in the city on Friday and Saturday, with 15 soldiers and one civilian killed in the violence.
“About 300 Islamic militants and Al Qaeda men came into Zinjibar and took over everything,” one resident told Reuters Sunday.
A security official told AFP that he estimated over 200 militants attacked the city. Another official said the attackers “took over all government facilities”.
Residents also said the gunmen freed dozens of prisoners from the city’s main prison.
May 28: Armed tribesman loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the powerful Hashid tribe, stand guard a street in Sanaa, Yemen. Fighting that rocked Sanaa for the past five days spread beyond the capital on Friday as Yemeni tribesmen opposed to the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh seized a Republican Guard military camp in battles that left dozens dead and prompted airstrikes by government warplanes, according to a tribal leader. (AP)
Opposition to Yemen’s President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused the leader that he allowed the city to fall to raise fears of Al Qaeda and boost his international support, AFP reports.
The clashes came while Saleh and the country’s most powerful tribal leader agreed on Saturday to end five days of gunbattles between forces loyal to each side that killed 124 people and pushed the country’s political crisis closer to civil war.
Although it could prevent bloodshed, Saturday’s agreement will do little to solve the wider crisis, with Saleh rejecting efforts to negotiate his exit.
The week’s battles began when Saleh’s security forces attacked the home of Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the powerful Hashid tribal confederation and an uneasy ally who abandoned the president and joined his opponents. Tribal fighters came to al-Ahmar’s defense and seized a number of government buildings in the Hassaba neighborhood of the capital, Sanaa, during intense clashes.
Fighting then spread outside the capital when tribal fighters seized two army posts north of the city on Friday.
A member the committee of tribal leaders who brokered Saturday’s deal said the sides had agreed to withdraw their forces from the neighborhood starting Sunday morning.
The mediation committee will take control of the government buildings seized by tribal fighters so civilians can return to the area, the mediator said.
An aide to al-Ahmar confirmed the agreement’s details.
“The committee reached an agreement, and we will abide by it,” he said.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The agreement late Saturday followed steps by both sides to undermine the other, with al-Ahmar calling on security forces to desert the president and Yemeni authorities issuing an arrest warrant for the tribal leader.
In a letter to security forces, al-Ahmar called on the Republican Guard and other security forces to help “get rid of this regime and be among the makers of the change that the people are calling for.”
Experts say the uprising’s future will be determined by the number of tribes and security forces that turn against Saleh. Many already have, including the Hashid confederation, to which Saleh’s tribe belongs. Some army units have also left Saleh to back the protesters, though they did not join the fight against his forces.
The wave of defections picked up after Saleh intensified a crackdown on the protesters that has killed more than 150 demonstrators.
Al-Ahmar’s letter – published online and read aloud and distributed at meetings with tribal leaders – called on others to leave Saleh.
“The enemy of all these people is Saleh, who has weighed heavily upon our people for all these years and confiscated the simplest of Yemeni citizens’ rights to serve the interests of Saleh, his sons and his family,” he wrote.
He called on soldiers not to “sacrifice themselves for one individual or family” and to stand with the people in choosing “change and the dream of a better future.”
It remains unclear if al-Ahmar’s letter will have any effect. Much of Saleh’s power base is made up of childhood friends and family members he placed in high-level security posts, decreasing the chances of defection. Yemen’s powerful Republican Guard, which al-Ahmar called on specifically, is commanded by one of Saleh’s sons and has remained loyal to the president as other military units have defected.
The week’s clashes followed a breakdown in efforts by Yemen’s Gulf Arab neighbors to negotiate an end to the crisis. The deal would have required Saleh to step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution, but he balked at signing.
The Hashid turned against Saleh two months ago, throwing its weight behind the protesters. But before this week, it had kept its well-armed fighters on the sidelines.
The United States, which once considered Saleh a necessary ally in fighting an active Al Qaeda branch in Yemen, has turned away from the Yemeni ruler, calling on him to peacefully transfer power.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.