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| Arabia |
| Yemen: The Tribes Enter the Fight |
| 2011-09-24 |
| [Yemen Post] Residents in Hasaba this Thursday reported violent festivities between rustics loyal to Sheikh Sadeeq al-Ahmar and followers of Sheikh Saghir bin Aziz. Hasaba, a northern district of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, is one of al-Ahmar's tribe main strongholds and has been on several occasions the scene of heavy shelling as the government tried to dislodge the tribal dissidents. Sheikh Sadeeq al-Ahmar, who is Yemen's most influential tribal leader, and supreme commander of the powerful Hasheed confederation of tribes, vowed in March to defend the revolutionaries and to bring down the regime. Since then, the regime has declared war on Yemen's "blue blood" family, shelling their houses, targeting their businesses, accusing them of collaboration with terror elements within the country and so on... Under attack today, Sheikh al-Ahmar retaliated by mortar rounds, machine guns shots and RPGs attacks, forcing back Saghir bin Aziz's men. Hemyar al-Ahmar, the Sheikh's younger brother and deputy parliament speaker, flew to his brother's aid, throwing his own men onto the midst of the battle. With every passing day, more districts of the capital are swallowed by violence, leaving many to fear that no home or family will be spared. |
| Posted by:Fred |