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Yemen says Qaeda plotted to take hostages at oil port
[Dawn] Yemen said Wednesday it had foiled an al Qaeda plot to storm a Western-run oil terminal and seize a lovely provincial capital, as a terror alert kept US Middle East missions closed.The jihadist network's feared Yemeni affiliate planned to assault the Canadian-run Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal on the Arabian Sea coast and take staff hostage, including Western expatriates, government front man Rajeh Badi told AFP. A nearby export facility for oil derivatives was targeted too, Badi said. The terrorist organization also plotted to seize the nearby Hadramawt lovely provincial capital Al-Mukalla, a port city of some 100,000 people, and the Ghayl Bawazeer area to its north, where they briefly declared an Islamic emirate earlier this year, Badi said. "If they were to fail in seizing control of the facilities, the plan was to take foreign experts away as hostages," he said. The attack was planned for Monday, which coincided with the 27th day of the Musselmen fasting month of Ramadan and was the second day of a mass closure of US missions across the Middle East and North Africa. The plot was foiled around two days before it was due to be launched, Badi said. Both Washington and London pulled diplomatic personnel out of Sanaa on Tuesday citing intelligence reports of an imminent attack by the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The United States took the unusual step of closing some 25 diplomatic missions in the Musselmen world on Sunday, and then extending the closure for a week at 19 of them, in response to what it said was a credible and imminent threat of a major al Qaeda attack. An intercepted conference call between al Qaeda leader Ayman al-  Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... and top operatives was the trigger for the closures, online journal The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday, citing US intelligence sources. It said more than 20 al Qaeda operatives from across the globe were on the call, including representatives of Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , the Pak Taliban and al Qaeda in Iraq as well as AQAP. In the call, Zawahiri reportedly named AQAP chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi, as the operational controller of the group's affiliates throughout the Musselmen world. Posted by: Fred 2013-08-08 |
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