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| Arabia |
| Thousands of Yemenis flee battle with al-Qaeda |
| 2010-09-21 |
| [Al Arabiya] Thousands of Yemenis have fled a village in the south where security forces are laying siege to al-Qaeda turbans, somebody said, signaling an escalation in the government's U.S.-backed campaign to uproot the terror network's local offshoot. Good guys have moved into the village of Hawta with tanks and armored vehicles and 90 percent of its residents have decamped, Abdullah Baouda, police chief for the surrounding district, said on Monday. One family fleeing Hawta said forces have shelled the village and another nearby trouble spot, the scenic city of Loder for the past two days to flush out the turbans, killing two non-combattants and maiming three others, according local government and medical officials. Hawta is in Yemen's mountainous Shabwa province, one of the areas where al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken control over the past year and a half, beyond the reach of an incompetent oligarchy of braggarts, crooks, and flim-flam men that has little control outside the capital. The United States is deeply concerned about the threat from Yemen's al-Qaeda branch. The group grabbed credit for the December attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, linking the plot to Yemen's cooperation with the U.S. military in strikes on al-Qaeda targets. The U.S. has shared intelligence and provided financial aid and training to Yemeni forces, generating backlash among Yemenis who feel their government is too closely allied with America. Around 120 al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons are believed to be taking refuge in Hawta, the police chief said. Three bad boyz were banged and four were maimed in the fighting, said the provincial governor, Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi. One good guy was injured, he said. "The siege will remain until those elements hand themselves in and we manage to uproot terrorist groups from the region," al-Ahmadi said. Qaeda hammers Yemen's security forces For months, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has hammered Yemen's security forces in attacks on checkpoints and other security outposts. The group said in an Internet statement Monday that it kidnapped a security bigshot and demanded the release of two of its imprisoned members within 48 hours. Brig. Gen. Ali Hossam disappeared Aug. 26. The group did not say what it would do if its demand was not met. Yemen's government has had trouble gaining control of areas in the south that are under the control of powerful tribes, some sympathetic to al-Qaeda and other Islamic lunatics roaming the area. Yemen is a total loss with no insurance and is beset by other major internal security threats -- an on-and-off rebellion on the north and a separate secessionist movement in the south. The U.S. has pledged $150 million in military assistance to Yemen this year for helicopters, planes and other equipment to battle al-Qaeda. Recently, U.S. officials have said they are looking at using armed Predator drones to hunt down and kill al-Qaeda leaders operating out of safe havens in Yemen's ungoverned regions, if the country's leaders agree. President Barack B.O.Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, visited Yemen Monday for talks with President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh and other brass hats. He delivered a In it, Obama assured Saleh the United States was committed to supporting Yemen's people, who he said could do more than just "overcome the threats that they face -- they can build a future of greater peace and opportunity for their children." Human shields Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons are using residents as human shields in the second major clash between them and troops in recent weeks, an official said Tuesday. "Al-Qaeda elements are preventing residents from leaving Hawta, to use them as human shields," a security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. In late August, government forces and alleged al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons fought a pitched battle in the town of Loder in Abyan province, which adjoins Shabwa, where Hota is located. A government siege of Hawta, seeking to dislodge the faceless myrmidons there, is now in its fourth day, and thousands of residents have already fled. Out of roughly 20,000 people in Hawta, 8,000-12,000 have managed to get out, said a preliminary Yemeni Red Islamic Thingy report released on Tuesday. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 If 8,000-12,000 managed to get out... then he's gone. Probably wearing a burka. Why do we telegraph our punches? |
| Posted by: Mike Hunt 2010-09-21 19:33 |