Al-Qaeda takes control of Abyan through regular warfare

Qaedat Al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula changed its military strategy and was able to control the whole province of Abyan months ago, but the Yemeni opposition accused the regime of president Salih of handing over the province to Al-Qaeda, to draw the attention of the West from the cause of the revolution that is demanding his removal and the over through of his regime, to the most important and sensitive in the Western dictionary.

Al-Qaeda controls beside the city of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, most of the directorates of the province, even the directorates that became out of their control like the directorates of Ludar and Mudiya, it has many supporters and some military posts, also it was able through its fierce response against the tribes that we recruited against them, to neutralize these tribes completely from playing any role that benefits its enemies.

The support of Al-Qaeda to regime of president Ali Salih, which its enemies accuse it of, Al-Qaeda denies it altogether, and considered it “fabrications and nonsense from parties that always work for distortion and confusion to give a bad image of the mujahidin”, also Al-Qaeda denies that the army that is fighting it is “supporting the youth revolution”, since its war as it says is with the “central security forces and the units of counter terrorism in Zinjibar and everyone knows that suppress the revolution and the kill the people, and the mechanic 25th brigade commander Al-Sommali declared that he is not with the revolution in an interview with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, and the revolution is not honored to have such criminal general join it”, according to them, and Al-Qaeda proves the truthfulness of what is says the meeting of general Mahdi Maqula with commander of the besieged brigade Al-Sommali after the liberation operation, despite that Maqula is accused of supporting Al-Qaeda in Abyan and attempting to foil the efforts to left the siege on the mechanic 25th brigade.

Recruiting the tribes and its consequences

Military and other tribal bodies, that are claimed to be related to the youth revolution, from recruiting several members from the tribes of the province of Abyan to fight Al-Qaeda in the province, this step came after difficulties and embranchments that the army forces faced in its battles with Al-Qaeda, but this step made the province enter to a hard predicament that may make it sink into chaos in the coming years.

As it is known many of those who are members in Al-Qaeda or “Ansar Al-Sharia” as they like to call themselves, are from the inhabitants of province, so any internal fighting will certainly have affects that extend to the coming years in a country where taking revenge in on the head of the list of troubles, despite the recruits from the sons of the tribes are aware to the negative consequences for this matter, but their interest to prove what they accuse the regime overshadowed everything.

The Al-Qaeda information says that some members of the tribes agreed to the offer due to their need because of that hard living condition which the sons of the province live in, although that the amount of money that are given to them is very cheap, despite of that it was passed under the name of “The tribes that support the revolution” , although the regions that are not controlled by Al-Qaeda, or which are said that they are in the hands of the tribes that support the revolution, witness a unprecedented security breakdown, for example we needed to stop more than 23 times at more than 23 tribal post in the “Ahwar” region where Al-Qaeda isn’t present, and at every post the driver has to pay what they call “right of the post” to the extent that many drivers that take this route, especially the owners of big trucks, wish that Ansar Al-Sharia control this area.

Regarding the way Ansar Al-Sharia deal with the members of the tribes that joined the ranks of the forces of the army, they had a soft touch at the beginning, but that as the Jamaat militants claim, encouraged the members of the tribes to be more persistent, they kidnapped several of the organization militants and handed them to the army forces, and the organization didn’t have any option but the deterrent respond, according to them. Their response came as a suicide operation s, the first targeted a tribal meeting in the Mudiya directorate, which killed many of the gathered there, the most prominent of them “Abu Bakr Ashal, Jamal Badr and Al-Sayid”, who were prominent officials in the Nation and Political security service according to the information of the Jamaat, and the second targeted another meeting for the tribes in the Al-Arqoub region which resulted in the death of more than 40 person. The second operation had a strong affect, after that many of the tribes’ members stopped supporting the army.

Al-Qaeda says that its capable and at any time to extend its control on the whole Abyan province, but it doesn’t want to enter in wars with the tribes that have been incited against it, if these tribes weren’t the beginners, as what happened in the coastal city of Shaqra, which the organization militants say was retrieved from the tribes with only 16 fighters. After the operations of Mudiyah and Al-Arqoub that many members of the tribes fell in it, the tribes lifted all the posts from their locations to beyond Ludar directorate, and only the military post at the electricity in directorate remained.

Al-Qaeda and the opposition

Al-Qaeda organization believes, according to many of the members and leaders of the organization whom I have met, that the Muslim Brotherhood are standing with all their strength behind promoting of the rumors about the so called “links between the Salih regime and Al-Qaeda”, which became a popular culture among the people.

Through the days that I have spent with the militants of the organization, and my close observance to the details of their life and behavior, it appeared to me linking the organization to the regime is a very silly thing, and a talk that stand on nothing more than the conclusion associated with prior beliefs and rules, since many of the fighters were in Salafi scientific centers, and many of them participated in the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and have a lot of Sharia knowledge, so it’s impossible for the regime to recruit these to play a role for some money, also the regime is much weaker to recruit and support all this number of fighters inside and outside Yemen.

Many of the members of the organization whom I have met believe that the Yemeni opposition, and in particular the leaders of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, are aware that the organization has no links with the regime except the benefit relation which the organization itself doesn’t deny and doesn’t carry its consequences, but the opposition, as the organization sees, always searches for what can weaken the position of the regime, and this sensitive file was the most important matter that the opposition raises for this purpose.

Did the organization break its silence in Abyan?

From the beginning of the Yemeni revolution until its fourth month, the organization of Qaedat Al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula remained silent, and stopped its operational activity, like the branches of the organization in other countries which witnessed similar revolutions fearing that it might affect the course of the revolution, since all the regimes that the people demanded its removal, participated in the issue of intimidation with this file, to force the

West to hold to them, and instructions came from Dr. Aymen Al-Zawahiri to the branches of the organization to stop what was could affect these revolutions, to ensure this matter, the organization adhered to these instructions verbally.

Also the organization was assiduous not to appear during the popular Arab revolutions from its belief that it participates with these people in important points, like refusing the Western guardianship on the region, and that was translated in the Egyptian revolution by reopening of the Rafah passageway and the Egyptians demanding of the need to review some of the terms of the Camp David Accords.

This racing towards the West by the regime and opposition parties in the shadow of youth revolution that ensures on refusing the foreign tutelage, “Qaedat Al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula” has been convinced that the revolution has lost control of itself, and the latest developments came based on this conviction, despite its assurance of its standing beside the youth revolution and its agreeing with it in many of its goals.

Those who I have met from the leaders and members of the organization said that controlling the city of Zinjibar came after three months of the beginning of the youth revolution in Yemen, and that time was enough for the revolution to achieve what it wants, before the parties interfered in its matters, but it didn’t do that, instead it turned to a political pressure paper in the hands of the opposition parties and some tribal and military powers.

The leaders of the organization wonder whom I met about the reason for the opposition double standards, when they say that the army handed over Abyan to Al-Qaeda without fighting, they praise the fall of the military brigades in Naham, Arhab and other places in the hands of the tribes. Also it condemns the military action of Al-Qaeda in Abyan, but they approve the tribes of Al-Hasba, Arhab, Naham, the province of Taaz and other places. Al-Qaeda doesn’t hide its pain that many of the youth of the revolution believe what the opposition says about its links with the regime, although the matters are quite obvious from this side, according to them.

General Ali Mohsen between “Ansar Allah” in Saada and “Ansar Al-Sharia” in Abyan

The fighters of the Ansar Al-Sharia wonder about the reasons that made general Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar to give up the province Saada to Ansar Allah (the Houthis), but he insists to liberate the province of Abyan from Ansar Al-Sharia “Al-Qaeda”. They expect that showing good conduct and behavior before the United States is the main purpose, besides weakening the position of Saleh regime, but in the end they don’t care. Since the breakout of the war between Al-Qaeda and the United States of America the whole world couldn’t stand in the second row, as they say, they accepted this challenge, and there is no longer any difference in their dictionary regarding the matter of “against” or “with”.

What does it mean for the army to control the city of Zinjibar

Regardless of the accuracy of the news that was presented by the official and opposition media, “Qaedat Al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula” doesn’t think that he will lose much if it loses the control over the city of Zinjibar, which it controls from 29 May, it in all circumstances, will return to its special strategy, which is resembled in the guerilla warfare, which is the proper strategy in comparison to its military capabilities and it’s security situation in general.

The control of the army forces over the city of Zinjibar or the province of Abyan means that Al-Qaeda will begin a new more ferocious stage, where the regular military action blends with the guerilla warfare which the organization is good in it, and also this dominance means that the organization will be able more capable to reach to its goal, since the battles in the Dofas region were happening in a open area, the army couldn’t advance towards Zinjibar and the besieged brigade, nor the militants were able to crush these forces.

After forces of the army managed to lift the siege over the mechanic 25th brigade and reached the Wihda stadium that was near to the brigade, the fighters of the organization managed to kill 10 soldiers through an ambush at the Abyan roundabout near the stadium area last Sunday, and the coming days might witness many of such operations.

Despite of the recent development were surprising and important, at least in the view of its owners, we mean by that the advance on the ground that was achieved by the army forces from the coast direction, but in the view of the militants of Al-Qaeda, or Ansar Al-Sharia in Abyan, it’s not important, rather it was late, because the organization opened the space for these forces before a week from its advance, in the framework of its new strategy.

Al-Qaeda in the city of Zinjibar faced big difficulties in the clashes that happened in the Dofas region against the military campaign that was charged primarily to lift the siege over the mechanic 25th brigade, for reasons related to the nature of the earth that they were fighting on, and the huge difference in the military armament, although this difference only helped the forces of the army to advance relatively from the coast direction as we have said, this recent advance came after the withdrawal of the organization voluntarily.

During the tour that I use to take daily accompanied by the militants of the organization during my presence in the city of Zinjibar and the directorate of Jaar one week before the recent developments. The militants of the organization told me that there will be no importance for the battles I will report about within days, because something new will occur to the military strategy of the organization, without giving me any additional details, but through their speech about the nature of the battles of Dofas, I realized the strategy was related to the withdrawal or retreat from the fighting fronts in the regions.

Its worthy to mention here that the casualties of the organization in the recent clashes weren’t high, despite the big figures that are published by the local and foreign media, which usually depend on sources that oppose the organization, during the ten days that I spent there and I followed the news about the battles minute by minute, only seven fighters from the organization were killed, four by American drone attacks, not in the clashes in the Dofas region, but in the coastal city of Shaqra and far Al-Mahfad directorate.

Mocking what the media is circulating from news about the figures of the Al-Qaeda causalities in Abyan, the fighters of the organization told me that those 7 will be 70 in the newspapers and satellite channels, but they expressed their indifference to that, all what concerns them, as they say, is what they seize from land.

About the Aden – Abyan army

Despite of the large numbers of the fighters of the organizations in the province of Abyan, but the number of those who were fighting in the Dofas front didn’t exceed 40 fighters, armed with a few RPGs, mortar, PKs, in addition to individual arms.

Although the organization doesn’t have an accurate statistic for the number of its fighters in the province of Abyan, but there numbers appear to very big, you can see new people every day coming from the different Yemeni provinces, in addition to fighters from other countries, Arab and foreign. Because it wishes in engaging the largest number of its fighters in the regular warfare, which they haven’t fought before, the organization replaces the fighters in the front with others on a daily bases, and many of them their turn hasn’t come yet.

Differently than was expected the battles were going closely, even sometimes it reaches direct engagement, and there are video clips of fighting members of the organization topping the tanks and throwing bombs inside it. According to the participants in the Dofas battles the space that was between them and army forces in the regular times (unlike the times of the battles) didn’t exceed 500 meters.

During my talk to the fighters of the organization, appeared very prepared to fight in the battles of the Dofas front or doing suicide operations. Regarding the martyrdom operations the leadership of the organization a list that includes the names of its fighters who wish to do this kind of operations, and the list exceeds one thousand martyrdom bomber and most of them are hastened to be assigned with that mission.

Regarding the types of the IEDs that are used by “Qaedat Al-Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula” in its operations, the organization says that its latest IED's are “tonic” which means its weight exceeds one ton, and has a double affect, like the recent Al-Alam operation, where tanks and some of the soldiers carriers were destroyed, and the operation of the governmental compound in the province of Al-Jouf, and they hope to lift its weight to 5 tons.

At the level of personal armament for the fighters of the organization, in the pouch of every fighter four store of bullets, sometimes they are doubled to eight, and a place for two bombs, in one of them they keep a hand grenade and in the other they keep in it a Quran, and a booklet of Azkar. At the level of the living conditions, the fighters don’t have any problems, they have what can make them sufficient for months, and they say that they get this support from parties and figures that believe in their cause and through their financial operations.

Operations beyond the borders

Being busy with the fighting in the Abyan province against the army forces didn’t prevent the organization from executing operations against its opponents beyond the border of province. The operation of the Al-Matama in the province of Al-Jouf, which targeted a government building last month and the Islah party accused the Saleh regime to be behind it for the purpose of reviving the internal fighting with the Houthi group, and the Houthis accused America to be behind it. The suicide operation was committed by one of the Al-Qaeda members called Khattab Al-Hotti, from the Al-Hotta directorate in Shabwa province, and the organization adopted the operation recently.

The sources of the organization says that the operation that the media said that two persons were killed in the governmental compound, in fact more than 100 from the Houthi group who were gathered in the building, and bodies were pulled out for more than three days. It’s not known the precise reason why the organization chose that time for this operation but it speaks about presence of members of the Houthi group among the campaign assigned to lift the siege over the mechanic 25th brigade, and it says it has evidence to prove that.

The destroyed province

Who remain from the people of the city of Zinjibar live on what is given to them from food and medicine by the fighters of the organization, who are present in the city, and they appeal to the human rights organization to see their situation quickly.

The fighters of the organization that the purpose of bombing of the city is to create a state of resentment among the population from the presence of Al-Qaeda in their region, and keep them under difficult humanitarian situation for the displaced, and the regime or who are fighting them deliberately sought to neglect the displaced of Abyan for this purpose. And for the same purpose the air bombing became directed to the homes and shops of the citizens, according to them.

During their presence in the Jaar directorate and many of the regions of the province of Abyan, the fighters of the Al-Qaeda organization succeeded in creating a status of amiability between them and the inhabitants of those regions, especially that many of the fighters belong to those regions. The model of Al-Qaeda is very perfect in comparison with the model of the Saleh regime.

In addition to the unprecedented security stability, the organization presents some services to the citizens, especially in the aspect of livelihood. I have seen lists given to me by the media officials of the organization, which consist of the types of supplies that are presented to the citizens, which includes many numbers of them. Also there are two pickups that have been assigned to distribute water to the houses, which is considered a great thing for a people who never depended on their government. The citizens of the Jaar directorate say that many crimes like murders, stealing have disappeared dramatically since the Ansar Al-Sharia entered their areas.

Also the banditry phenomenon ended on the general road of Al-Mahfad directorate. This road was known of scary banditry, the bandits have gone far to removing the golden earrings from the ears of the woman. During our tour in the Jaar directorate many children met us with the victory signs and were saying Takbir and Alhamdulillah.

A case of punishment

During the Eid Al-Qaeda executed a person in the Jaar directorate for Qisas (punishment). Some of the media said that the event came in the framework of the Al-Qaeda settling accounts with the sons of tribes which turned against them, but the relatives of this person denied that when I met them.

An argument about the legitimacy of commencement of killing the soldiers

It appears that there is a disagreement between them regarding the legitimacy of killing the soldiers. But they are agreed that it is not legitimate to kill every soldier. Since there are many of the affiliates of the military institution who they don’t target, like the rescue forces and the air forces, also they don’t target the soldiers in the other provinces, although they are capable, according of them, of killing many of them if they wanted, but they target the forces of the army and security in the provinces where there are battles as a response for being targeted by the soldiers. It appears that the issue of killing of the soldiers, in general, hasn’t been settled yet.

Previously Al-Qaeda said that its battle is not with the soldiers, but with America and those who ally with it. During the 2009 Maareb operation, the organization released seven soldiers who were captured by it, after the battles with the forces of the army. One of the leaders of the organization ensured to me that they released a many soldiers after they were captured during the battles of late Zinjibar, especially in the battles in the surroundings of the Al-Wihda sports stadium, and this leader refuted what has been circulating through the media about executions committed by the fighters of the organization to the captured soldiers, even they paid for them the costs of their returning to their areas. But the targeting of the soldiers expanded a little, this is explained by one of the leaders of the organization “what changed is that the soldiers and the military institution didn’t accept to be neutral and stood in our way and fought us, and they sent to us campaigns after campaigns”.

There is a new video for the organization tilted “Go your way, for you are free”, which documents many of the releasing of soldiers who fell in to their captivity, and the video “Conquest of Zinjibar”, which showed clips of the fighters releasing the captive soldiers after the soldiers vowed not fight against them again, and this was met wide satisfaction by the citizens of Zinjibar.

The story of the escape

In met in Abyan three from the prisoners who escaped from the Al-Mukala central prison in the recent escape operation which many of the observers doubted its authenticity, and they accused - as usual – the regime of president Saleh of being behind the operation, and their proof is that the prison is located in mountainous region and digging is hard in it, moreover this operation is similar to the escape of 23 of the most dangerous terrorist leaders from the political security prison in Sana’a in 2006. But the runaways have a different opinion. The area which was excavated was piled with sand and wasn’t from solid land, may that happened during the building of the prison. They said that they found during their digging remains of car tires and other waste which was a proof that they were piled. Keeping in mind that they were the only ones present in the prison, 78 prisoners, and the cells of the prison were opened to each other.

The runaway prisoners showed me a new video for “Al-Malahim media”, which documented the digging operation, how it was done, in the video there is a recording to most times of the digging inside the prison with a mobile camera.

It’s to worth mention that the recent Al-Alam operation that claimed the lives of many soldiers, was committed by one of the runaways. So this ends all the debate about the authenticity of the escape operation from the Al-Mukala central prison.

Discontent with the performance of Al-Jazeera

The organization believes that the dealing of channel Al-Jazeera with the file of Al-Qaeda changed dramatically from the beginning of the popular Arab revolutions despite of the huge developments of the organization, in Yemen and abroad. Some of them believe that this change is due to the Ikhwani (Muslims Brotherhood) administration of the channel, since according to them Al-Jazeera deals with the popular revolutions as if they are purely an Ikhwani revolutions, since its dealing with the Egyptian revolution was different.

Some of the members of the organization cite the dealing of Al-Jazeera with the news about the liberation of the army forces to the city of Zinjibar. Although the main source of the news was the official Yemeni media and the media of the opposition, Al-Jazeera appeared very confident when it was speaking about the army seizing the city, like it has accompanied the liberation operation step by step, shell by shell, according to them.

They expressed their amazement for the channel sending correspondents or reporters to the most troubled regions in the world, while they are afraid from sending someone who can reveal to them the facts about the province of Abyan. They mentioned that when the channel reporter Ahmed Al-Shalafi came to the province he didn’t exceed the coastal city of Shaqra, which is located on the edges, despite they were going to provide for him the necessary security for him if he wanted or agreed to take a tour inside the province.

Abdulrazaq Al-Jammal

Al-Wasat newspaper

2011-09-18

Translated and submitted by a Mujahid

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