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Qaida, Tribes Kill 20 Yemeni Soldiers
[An Nahar] Tribesmen and al-Qaeda beturbanned goons killed 22 people, all but two of them soldiers, and captured dozens of others in separate attacks over a 24-hour period, security and tribal sources said on Friday."Al-Qaeda beturbanned goons ambushed a military patrol near Safer (oil fields), in (the eastern province of) Marib, killing 11 soldiers," a security official in Sanaa said. The assailants used machine-guns in Friday's attack. Also in Marib, two soldiers were killed, two maimed and 30 taken prisoner in a clash with rustics, said another security official and a tribal source. Six rustics were also maimed. The rustics, armed with anti-aircraft guns, attacked a military convoy trying to open the main Sanaa-Marib road, which the tribes have blocked in protest at local grievances. Security officials later said unknown gunnies on Friday rubbed out a soldier in the restive southern province of Abyan, an al-Qaeda bastion, raising the army's corpse count to 20. On Thursday, a fierce clash between armed rustics and troops of Yemen's elite Republican Guard in the southern province of Lahij left at least six soldiers and two rustics dead, security officials said. The festivities broke out over the army's refusal to redeploy a Republican Guard unit from the mountain village of Labus, according to tribal sources. Yemen, a deeply tribal country on the Arabian Peninsula, has been the scene of deadly protests since late January calling for the ouster of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh. The protests have led to defections and festivities within the army. But the Republican Guard, headed by Saleh's son, Ahmed, has remained loyal to the embattled president. Besides anti-regime protests, Yemen has been battling a secessionist movement in the south, a Shiite rebellion in the north and an al-Qaeda resurgence on its soil. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saleh's fall or replacement by a weaker leader would pose "a real problem" for Washington's fight against al-Qaeda. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-24 |
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