Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-AQAP-26

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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-AQAP-26

Major General Tim Cross; First a bit of realism: "we", the West, are not going to fix the Middle East. We don’t see it the way people in the region see it, and we certainly don’t understand it the way they do. Saudi Arabia, is struggling in a conflict with the Houthi rebels in Yemen which risks becoming a quagmire; it is already breeding extremism and taking a high humanitarian toll. Yemen has not been widely covered in Western media, yet Isil and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are taking advantage of the chaos there to strengthen their presence – just as they have done in Syria and Iraq, with such devastating consequences.

An al Qaeda commander comes out from the shadowsBY THOMAS JOSCELYN | December 16, 2015 | Ibrahim Abu Salih, who cofounded al Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula, has been a jihadist for more than 35 years.Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) publicly identified one of its founding members for the first time in a video released earlier this month. Ibrahim Abu Salih (also known as Abu al Hassan al Hashimi) has been a jihadist for more than 35 years, but AQAP’s “Guardians of Sharia” is the first production he has been featured in. Abu Salih’s decision to come out from the shadows demonstrates that al Qaeda maintains a deep bench of leaders, many of whom remain unknown to the public more than 14 years after the 9/11 attacks. According to a biography published on AQAP-affiliated social media sites, Abu Salih studied theology at Al Azhar University in Cairo before joining the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) group in 1979 or 1980. The EIJ, which was responsible for a string of attacks in Egypt and elsewhere, was led by Ayman al Zawahiri, who eventually folded the organization into al Qaeda.Abu Salih worked with some of al Qaeda’s most senior leaders throughout his career. When he joined the EIJ, Abu Salih was “with Sheikh Mustafa Abu al Yazid” and the two were imprisoned together in the 1990s, according to AQAP’s biography. Yazid, who went on to serve as al Qaeda’s general manager and was close to Osama bin Laden, was killed in a US drone strike in 2010. In 1989 or 1990, Abu Salih traveled to Afghanistan, where he “met with Sheikh Ubaydah al Banshiri and a number of the jihadi leadership.” Banshiri was one of bin Laden’s most trusted lieutenants until his death in 1996.

However, Abu Salih didn’t stay in Afghanistan. In the early 1990s, Zawahiri and Banshiri ordered him to move to Yemen, where he “spread the jihadist thought to confront communism and secularism.”

After another trip to Afghanistan, Zawahiri ordered Abu Salih to return to Yemen in 1992 or 1993.

Zawahiri commanded Abu Salih to oversee “the administration” of al Qaeda’s “affairs” in Yemen, “opening public relationships with all the students of knowledge and the notables and the tribal sheikhs.”

Years later, Abu Salih helped found AQAP and he is currently “the security official for the group.” He is also a member of AQAP’s elite shura, or advisory, council.AQAP’s biography for Abu Salih is intended to buttress his jihadist credentials, so that his

The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.–Winston Churchill

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audience will know he speaks with authority. Indeed, Abu Salih is likely not just a spokesman for AQAP, but also for al Qaeda’s entire global organization.In the wake of the 2011 Arab uprisings, Al Qaeda relocated much of its management team to Yemen and Syria. AQAP’s leader, Nasir al Wuhayshi, was named al Qaeda’s overall general manager, giving him power far outside of Yemen. And Wuhayshi’s lieutenants also served as al Qaeda’s deputy general managers. Wuhayshi and some of his key subordinates were hunted down by American drones earlier this year. This created a void that Abu Salih and other al Qaeda veterans have been called upon to fill.

In “Guardians of Sharia,” Abu Salih discussed the history of jihadism and al Qaeda’s war with the West. He emphasized the importance of “righteous” ideologues who can lead the masses.

“The most important thing that the West was eager to strike during the past decades was the position of knowledge and its people,” he said just one minute into the video, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal. “They were eager that the ummah [worldwide community of Muslims] be without a righteous imam or scholar that the ummah could rally behind.”

Abu Salih portrayed al Qaeda’s jihad as a war against Christian and Jews, saying the “scholars” of the past, including the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyyah, would “not accept silence on the occupation of Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula, the Qiblah of Muslims [a reference to Mecca and the direction Muslims should pray in] or that Al Andalus remains under the authority of Christians.”

These same jihadist thinkers “could not tarry while Muslim lands are being governed without the sharia [Islamic law] of God.”

Al Qaeda seeks to restore the Islamic Caliphate, which was formerly dissolved in 1924. According to Abu Salih, Islamic armies failed to achieve victories in “most of the wars” since then, because the “religion was not present nor was the ulema [scholars].” During the war of 1967, he argued, the Egyptian Army was motivated by the songs of a popular musician “instead of being motivated by Koranic verses and the hadith [sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed].” The “army owned armored vehicles,” according to Abu Salih, but “it lacked faith.”

Abu Salih credited several thinkers for reviving the spirit of jihad, including Abdullah Azzam (Osama bin Laden’s mentor and the godfather of modern jihadist ideology), Yunis Khalis (a mujahideen leader in Afghanistan the 1980s), and Jalaluddin Haqqani (the founder of the Haqqani Network, which is closely allied with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.) These three men “incited Muslims by giving sermons, lessons, fatwas and writing,” Abu Salih said. They all “stirred still water, returning the compass towards the rightful path.”

The US has led a war of attrition against al Qaeda for more than 14 years. Dozens of key leaders have been killed or captured. But how many veterans, such as Abu Salih, remain on the battlefield? And how many new leaders have risen to take the place of those who have fallen? These questions are seldom asked, let alone answered.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for The Long War Journal.

8 December 2015 A documentary series - i - aired on the Al Arabiya News Channel reveals never-seen-before footage of al-Qaeda’s operations in Saudi Arabia and the subsequent raids and crackdowns on the group by authorities. In 2003 the then security chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef launched a counter attack that would see a three-year





security crackdown on the group, with thousands of its members thrown into prison. More than ten years on, the Al Arabiya News Channel is airing TV series on the attacks, promising an inside look into al-Qaeda, after hours of footage from cameras and mobile phones were recovered and released by Saudi security officials.The documentary series, split into three episodes, was produced for the Al Arabiya News Channel by OR Media, a London-based independent production company.

17 June 2015 After a three-year insurgency fight by al-Qaeda inside the kingdom, a new wave of terrorism is moving towards Saudi Arabia in the shape of the self-claimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Almost a year ago, a 17-minute audio message purportedly read by ISIS’ self-proclaimed leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared Saudi Arabia a key target of the organization.The group said it had its eyes set on the land of the “Two Holy Mosques” and the world's largest oil producer and exporter.

LWJ 9 Dec Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a new video featuring a former Guantanamo detainee, Ibrahim Qosi, who is also known as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani. Qosi joined AQAP in 2014 and became one of its leaders. Qosi and other AQAP commanders discussed their time waging jihad at length in the video, entitled “Guardians of Sharia.”

Islamic scholars ensure the “correctness” of the “jihadist project,” according to Qosi. And the war against America continues through “individual jihad,” which al Qaeda encourages from abroad. Here, Qosi referred to al Qaeda’s policy of encouraging attacks by individual adherents and smaller terror cells. Indeed, AQAP’s video celebrates jihadists who have acted in accordance with this call, such as the Kouachi brothers, who struck Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris earlier this year. The Kouachi brothers’ operation was sponsored by AQAP.

The al Qaeda veterans shown in the video emphasized the importance of following the advice of recognized jihadist ideologues. Although AQAP’s men do not mention the Islamic State by name, they clearly have Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s group in mind.

Al Qaeda has criticized the Islamic State for failing to follow the teachings of widely respected jihadist authorities, most of whom reject the legitimacy of Baghdadi’s self-declared “caliphate.”

Qosi’s appearance marks the first time he has starred in jihadist propaganda since he left Guantanamo. His personal relationship with Osama bin Laden and time in American detention make him an especially high-profile spokesman.Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the deadliest branches of the global militant network, said it was aware of Saudi intentions to execute its members in Saudi prisons and pledged to carry out attacks in response (Dec 01).

"We swear to God, our blood will be shed before the blood of our captives, and their pure blood will not dry before we shed the blood of the soldiers of Al Saud," the group said in a statement which was posted on Twitter and dated Tuesday.

"We will not enjoy life unless we get the necks of the Al Saud rulers."June 2015, The new leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has released a message calling for attacks on the United States.

"All of you must direct and gather your arrows and swords against it," Qasm al-Rimi, also known as Abu Hureira al-Sanaani, said in the video

Dec 02, 2015 In the statement, published on an Al Qaeda forum and distributed on social media, al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to “move the war to homes of Europe and





America” because “they are the leaders of the Crusader campaign.” The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of “total confrontation.” As soon as the caliphate has been declared the “Islamic army” it will instigate the “fight between the believers and the non-believers” which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.

December 3, 2015 A prominent al Qaeda affiliate that has plotted attacks on the U.S. homeland is quietly expanding its presence in Yemen, according to reports, a development that could fuel the terrorist group’s rivalry with the Islamic State and pose severe security threats to the West.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group’s Yemen-based affiliate, is reported on Wednesday to have seized Zinjibar and Jaar, two major cities in southern Yemen. The al Qaeda affiliate has also captured armored vehicles used by Gulf nations in Yemen’s war.

Katherine Zimmerman, an al Qaeda expert at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in September that al Qaeda has implemented a new approach in cities such as Al Mukalla by integrating with Sunni tribal militias and local governance structures, rather than trying to impose a harsh form of Islamic law. If successful, al Qaeda’s attempt to enlarge its safe haven in Yemen “could have disastrous consequences,” she said.

“[Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] AQAP was behind at least four major attempted attacks on U.S. interests outside of Yemen, and all of those occurred when the group was weaker than it is today,” Zimmerman said. “AQAP is also still a key asset for the global al Qaeda network, providing overall leadership guidance, sharing expertise, and coordinating transnational attacks.

'Emirate of Jaar' A militant leader announced on a loudspeaker that AQAP had full control of "the emirate of Jaar" and that residents were now safe and life could go on normally, locals said by telephone. Later, sources said the militants had "redeployed" across the town, after residents previously reported that the Al Qaeda militants had withdrawn. Intelligence sources said the militants had "partially" withdrawn, while witnesses said they were setting up checkpoints. The militants withdrew had killed a Popular Resistance commander, Ali Al Sayed, and 10 of his fighters, along with four Al Qaeda militants, said a government official in Jaar. Al Qaida fighters retook on Wednesday, Dec 02 two southern Yemeni towns they briefly occupied four years ago, residents and local fighters said, exploiting the collapse of central authority in Yemen in its eight-month war. In an early morning surprise attack on the capital of Abyan province, Zinjibar, and the neighboring town of Jaar, the militants overcame local forces and announced their takeover over loudspeakers after dawn prayers. Residents identified them as Ansar al-Sharia, a local affiliate of al- Qaida. At least seven local militiamen and five militants were killed, according to local fighters. Militants were deployed to the streets of both towns, and in Jaar blew up the house of a local commander killed in the fighting, residents said. Schools and shops were closed.

December 03, 2015, Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen is great news for al QaedaBy Nicholas A. Glavin, contributor.

Neither the Saudi-led coalition nor the Houthi Shiite rebels are winning the war in Yemen. Who is? Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Yes, the same terrorist group that senior U.S. officials once listed as the "most dangerous" threat to domestic and international American interests.

As a U.S.-led coalition of 65 nations degrades the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

–Winston ChurchillCdW Intelligence to Rent Page 4 of 11 01/05/2023



across nine lines of effort, the war in Yemen continues to strain the resources of various Arab air forces, with some Gulf states temporarily withdrawing from counter-ISIS sorties in order to support the war in Yemen. The results have not been in Saudi Arabia's favor; Yemeni civilian casualties are high, coalition troops continue to be attacked by advanced weaponry, and the fragile state in the Arabian Peninsula continues to plunge into a desolate chaos. I

It's everything AQAP has ever wanted. Worrisome of what the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the agreement to halt Iran's enrichment of uranium — will mean for the region, Riyadh is focused on checking Tehran's influence in southwest Asia. The coalition's primary objective is to root Iran's proxy, the Houthis, from power after the rebels sent Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi into exile in early 2015 — except it isn't working. The weak power projection of Hadi's government forces and the Houthis' resolve in the north are allowing for swathes of central and eastern Yemen to essentially be ungoverned areas, which is ripe for al Qaeda's expansion. With neither a functioning government in Sanaa to provide services and a coalition that is undoubtedly failing to drive their Iranian-backed opponents out of power, Yemen has once again become a safe haven for AQAP and, to a dramatically lesser extent, ISIS militants.

Western media agencies are exclusively focused on the anti-ISIS coalition, and with legitimate reason after ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13.

However, the difference between ISIS and al Qaeda is that while the former has to hold territory to ensure its legitimacy, the latter does not and can survive as a fluid, transregional entity. It's important to note that while ISIS focuses on holding territory in light of an international air campaign (even fortifying itself through tunnel networks) AQAP is hell-bent on striking Western targets. One mustn't look any further than the failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009, intercepted printer bombs found in cargo airliners in October 2010, foiled plots against several U.S. diplomatic facilities in August 2013, and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France in January 2015 to understand AQAP's sophistication and desire to attack the West.

The withdrawal of 125 U.S. special operations forces from Yemen degrades any sort of counterterrorism capabilities against AQAP, especially considering a mass prison break freed over 300 inmates, including a top AQAP regional commander. This group is left to thrive and yet again become a formidable foe as regional players turn their attention to combating the Houthis.

Although al Qaeda may appear to be out of the limelight as ISIS seeks to monopolize the global jihadist movement, the rise of ISIS might even embolden al Qaeda.

Just recently, al-Shabaab warned ISIS to back off in Somalia, al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) launched a coordinated assault on a Western hotel in Mali, and "probably the largest" al Qaeda training camp was destroyed in Afghanistan — 14 years into a NATO-led war to eradicate their safe havens.

Both groups, ISIS and AQAP, put out slick propaganda e-magazines: Dabiq and Inspire, respectfully. Boasting techniques on how to create do-it-yourself improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and encouraging attacks in the West, ISIS and al Qaeda may use the West as a battleground to settle their rivalry. The worry here is that as coalition airstrikes degrade ISIS safe havens and the group shifts its strategy to undertake external operations like the ones in Paris, the Sinai Peninsula and Beirut, then al Qaeda will see this as a cue to





stay relevant in the global jihadist movement. Significantly degraded in Afghanistan by NATO and in Somalia by AMISOM, al Qaeda sees a golden opportunity to exploit the war in Yemen as the international community focuses its attention elsewhere. President Obama labeled the fight against al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Somalia as success stories just six months prior to the start of Saudi Arabia's air campaign. If this is any indication of how dynamic the threat posed by al Qaeda can be in such a short timeframe, the U.S. needs to reinterpret its fight against AQAP from a success story to another new chapter in irregular warfare. Glavin is a researcher at the United States Naval War College’s Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups (CIWAG). The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent the views of CIWAG, the Naval War College, the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.

Al Qaeda seizes town, provincial capital in southern YemenBY BILL ROGGIO AND THOMAS JOSCELYN | December 2, 2015 | Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) seized Zinjibar, the capital of the Abyan province, and the town of Jaar earlier today. Zinjibar was under AQAP’s control from May 2011 until the summer of 2012, when the jihadists were expelled with the help of American airstrikes. However, AQAP has been working its way back into the area. In October, al Qaeda fighters reportedly captured government buildings in Zinjibar. And today’s offensive may have been intended to secure the jihadists’ footing in the port town and the surrounding area.Fighters from Ansar al Sharia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s political front in Yemen, took control of Jaar after briefly skirmishing with pro-government tribal militias. Both militiamen and jihadists were killed during the fighting, Reuters reported.There are conflicting reports concerning AQAP’s current presence in Jaar. Some accounts say the jihadists may have targeted key leaders before falling back to Zinjibar and elsewhere. Other reports say AQAP is currently in control of the town. According to Al-Masdar Online, a Sanaa-based publication, AQAP blew “up the houses of two commanders of the popular committees, including the house of ‘Abd-al-Latif al-Sayyid.” The popular committees in Jaar include a mix of forces that are loyal to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.Al-Masdar identified the head of AQAP’s paramilitary army in Jaar and Zinjibar as Jalal Bal’idi, a well known al Qaeda commander in the Abyan province. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that an AQAP leader announced the group’s control over “the emirate of Jaar” from a loudspeaker in the “town’s Grand Mosque.” However, local witnesses cited by AFP said the AQAP fighters withdrew hours later. Sources cited by CNN tell a different story. Abdulatif Said, who heads the popular committees in the area, “said their forces evacuated during the fierce clashes and that both Jaar and Zinjibar are now in the control of al Qaeda.” The jihadists were met with little opposition from government forces as they stormed the two towns. The local militias apparently received little to no support from President Hadi, who is based in the nearby city of Aden.Hadi and his rump military are focused on battling Iranian-backed Houthi rebel forces, which took control of much of Yemen, including the capital of Sana’a, and forced Hadi to flee the country earlier this year. A coalition of gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have allied with Hadi and are seeking to push back the Houthis’ gains.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken advantage of the chaos to take control of territory in southern Yemen.

In August, fighters loyal to Hadi, under the cover of Saudi airstrikes, pushed Houthi rebels The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

–Winston ChurchillCdW Intelligence to Rent Page 6 of 11 01/05/2023



out of Zinjibar. But if AQAP retains control of the provincial capital after today’s events, then the expulsion of the Houthis simply cleared the way for al Qaeda.AQAP controls Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout province. After AQAP seized the city in April 2015, the US killed several AQAP leaders in drone strikes in Mukalla, including Nasir al Wuhayshi, the group’s emir and al Qaeda’s overall general manager. Other rural areas in Hadramout, Abyan, and Shabwa are also in AQAP’s hands. The jihadist group reportedly controls neighborhoods inside Aden, one of Yemen’s largest cities.

AQAP has also taken advantage of the Houthi coup to ally itself with tribal militias and even government forces in other areas. For instance, in Taiz, which is besieged by Houthi forces, AQAP is practicing a strategy of “integration” and controlling key neighborhoods in the city, The Independent reported last month.

AQAP previously controlled Zinjibar, Jaar, and many other cities and towns in Abyan and Shabwa province between the spring of 2011 and the summer of 2012. The Yemen government, backed by US airstrikes, retook most of the areas after heavy fighting. Wuhayshi, AQAP’s emir at the time, estimated that the group lost more than 500 fighters. Wuhayshi’s estimate was revealed in a letter addressed to the emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in August 2013. Wuhayshi said, however, that the sacrifice was worth the cost and that AQAP was able to preserve its top leadership cadre while essentially fighting a rearguard action. The most recent takeover of Zinjibar and Jaar further debunks the oft-repeated claim that al Qaeda and its branches are not interested in seizing territory and are only focused on conducting spectacular attacks against Western targets. The history of al Qaeda and its regional branches shows that they have consistently fought to capture and hold territory in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Mali, Libya, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Al Qaeda is not myopically focused on launching large-scale terrorist attacks in the West, as some Western analysts wrongly claim.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for The Long War Journal.

Yemen's Aden living in fear as jihadists grow. Yemen's temporary capital Aden is gripped by fear as the government struggles to stem growing threats by jihadists carrying out deadly attacks on officials and intimidating civilians. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), long active in Yemen, and the emerging Islamic State group appear to be vying for influence in the main port city, to which President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi returned from exile in November. Fighting between Iran-allied rebels and Saudi-backed loyalist forces has plunged the impoverished nation into chaos, which both jihadist groups have exploited to make sweeping gains, particularly in southern regions. The Saudi-led coalition battling the Shiite Huthi rebels since March has not targeted the jihadists. In recent days, armed and sometimes masked jihadists have been massively deployed in Aden's central Tawahi district, where governor Jaafar Saad was killed Sunday in an attack claimed by IS. "We live in fear. We don't know where those gunmen roaming on our streets came from," said 35-year-old resident, Ahmed. "Tawahi has turned into a ghost town." The gunmen have set up roadblocks in Tawahi and are spotted in other Aden districts such as Mualla, Dar Saad, Sheikh Othman, and Mansura, according to residents. Their typical targets are government officials -- policemen, soldiers, or even judges.On Saturday, assailants shot dead the presiding judge of a terrorism court, Mohsen Mohamed Alwan, and four of his bodyguards. Two police colonels were gunned down in





other attacks at the weekend. Civilians have not been spared.

'HEADING TOWARDS CATASTROPHE' On Monday gunmen killed a resident, Abdulaziz Ahmed, in Tawahi over accusations he was practising witchcraft. "As night descends, these men move around in their vehicles spreading terror," said Saleh Ahmed, a resident of Mansura. They are members of "Daesh or Ansar al-Sharia," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS and another name for AQAP.

Seen by the United States as Al-Qaeda's deadliest branch, AQAP had been alone on the jihadist scene in Aden until IS surfaced this year claiming deadly attacks, including one that targeted the government's temporary headquarters in October wounding several ministers.

"Aden is heading towards catastrophe if the situation persists and the government does nothing to quickly restore security," said Ahmed. Last month, radical Islamist gunmen entered a university faculty in Aden, forcing students to leave the campus and locking the main gate, witnesses said. They closed the faculty after threatening to use force against students if they did not observe segregation of the sexes on campus. The jihadists are occupying several government buildings in Aden and have even seized newsstands to distribute their leaflets, according to witnesses.Yemeni sources and Arab experts point accusing fingers at former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of the rebels who ruled Yemen for three decades and still wields influence in the deeply tribal country.

JOINING JIHADISTS FOR MONEY A military analyst in Aden, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Saleh, whose supporters are fighting alongside the Huthis, was using jihadists as a "tool" agains t the internationally recognised government.But security sources also say AQAP and IS are recruiting fighters from the Popular Resistance, an alliance of loyalist militiamen and troops who have become frustrated by unfulfilled promises to merge them with the security forces.

"Out of 59,000 Popular Resistance candidates who had applied, only 1,500 fighters have been integrated into the police and army in Aden, Daleh, Abyan, and Lahj," said a senior security official, referring to four of five southern provinces recaptured by Hadi loyalists since July.

Due to a lack of funds, "the initial list of candidates was reduced the first time to 20,000, and then again to 15,000," said the official who requested anonymity. Hadi on Monday appointed the leader of the Popular Resistance in Daleh, Aidarus al-Zubaidi, as governor of Aden and his deputy, General Shallal Ali Shayae as its police chief. As the announcements were made, authorities deployed some 500 fighters in Aden, mainly around Tawahi and neighbouring districts, security sources said. The two new "strongmen of Aden", who returned to the city this weekend from key coalition pillars Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are expected to deploy "up to 5,000 members of the Popular Resistance" across the port city, a security official said."These men, trained at military camps run by the coalition in Eritrea and Yemen, will be charged with securing Aden," another source said. AQAP fighters on Wednesday drove pro-government forces out of a town in southern Yemen that could potentially open up a supply route between Aden and their stronghold of Mukalla, in Hadramawt.

Houthis, Saudis and jihadis The three-way war in Yemen is not going well Dec 12th 2015 | BEIRUT | IF EVER a war caused pointless death and destruction, it is the one in Yemen. The Houthis, a rebel force, ousted the government from Sana’a, the capital, earlier





this year but are nowhere near their aim of ruling the country. The government has only the most tenuous hold over areas it retains or has liberated from the Houthis. A Saudi-led military campaign to reinstate Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the deeply unpopular president, has only added to the carnage. Amid this, the country has provided fertile turf for various groups of jihadists. On December 6th an offshoot of Islamic State (IS) said it was responsible for the bomb that killed Jaafar Muhammad Saad, the governor of the southern city of Aden. The government recently won back Aden from the Houthis, but its motley crew of allied fighters has failed to secure the place. Officials who hoped to govern from the port city have been too scared to make more than brief visits. The main group that now claims to hold the IS franchise in Yemen is relatively new, but it has carried out a string of suicide bombings against both the internationally recognised government and the Houthis. It has filled the vacuum left by the decline of Yemen’s longer-established Sunni terrorists, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The most potent remaining franchise of al-Qaeda was dealt a blow by the killing of its leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, by an American drone in June. Yet although their commander is no more, the jihadists are far from finished. AQAP has recently seized two southern cities, including Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan governorate, only 50km north-east of Aden. In a little over nine months of war Yemen has gone from terrible to worse. The death toll is now thought to have passed 6,000 and food, always in short supply, is getting scarcer. Roads, schools, shops and houses have been destroyed in battle or bombed to rubble. Aid workers complain that their warnings fall on deaf ears, and the international coalition is making things worse.On December 3rd Doctors without Borders, a medical charity, said the Saudis had bombed one of its mobile health clinics in Taiz, Yemen’s third city. In a sign of frustration with the Saudi campaign, Germany’s foreign-intelligence agency criticised the kingdom directly.All parties are under pressure to go to UN-run peace talks on December 15th. But prospects for peace are dim. Past rounds of these talks have led to nothing. There have been no signs of willingness to offer goodwill measures, such as the Houthis releasing prisoners or the coalition lifting its blockade on the country. The fighting for Taiz continues. “The parties to the war know how to destroy things,” says Farea al-Muslimi of the Carnegie Middle East Centre, a think-tank in Beirut. “But not how to govern.”

AQAP, Houthis, Saudis: Yemen's multifaction civil warThe warring factions in Yemen are to resume ceasefire negotiations. Earlier talks failed in the many-sided domestic and foreign conflict. Al Qaeda and the "Islamic State" are trying to take advantage of the conflict. The UN's special envoy for Yemen has issued a warning to the warring factions in the state on the Arabian Peninsula. "Courage, personal sacrifice and perseverance" are needed to end the growing suffering of Yemen's civilian population, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said. Starting December 15 in Switzerland, Cheikh Ahmed wants to try to achieve a lasting truce. According to the United Nations, more than 5,700 people have been killed in the conflict in the past nine months - nearly half of them civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee the fighting or are suffering because hardly any food or medicine is coming into Yemen. It seems unlikely that the overthrown government or the rebels will make concessions to one another. All previous mediation attempts have failed.At least Cheikh Ahmed can hope that most of the important protagonists in the conflict will attend. The internationally recognized president is Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi. However, he cannot rule from the capital, Sanaa. Houthi rebels expelled him and his government. From exile in Saudi Arabia, Hadi's team now has tried to get a foothold back in Yemen, at least in the southern port of Aden. The security situation there is bad. On





Sunday, the governor of Aden was killed in an attack. A third of Yemenites are ShiiteHadi's main opponents are the Shiite Houthi rebels. The movement is named after its deceased founder, Badreddin al-Houthi. Yemen's Shiites, who belong to a different order than Shiite Muslims in Iran and Iraq do, make up one-third of the population. For decades they have struggled with the Sunni-dominated central government. Houthi fighters seized Aden back in January, but have since been repelled from the port city.

The Houthis are supported by Shiite fighters loyal to Hadi's predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The longtime ruler was forced to step down in 2012, following mass protests that allowed Hadi to assume power. Saleh and his dilapidated security forces are on the Houthis' side. Representatives for Hadi, the Houthis and Saleh all plan to meet in Switzerland. But they are only some of the protagonists. If all parties involved in the conflict were to come together, UN mediators would need a long table. The power struggle in the southern end of the Red Sea has turned into a nationwide surrogate war. On Hadi's side there is a military alliance under the leadership of Saudi Arabia and eight other Arabic countries, including Egypt and most of the Gulf states. Last May, the West African state Senegal announced that it would join the alliance. The United States, France and Great Britain have provided logistical support.

On the opposing side, the Houthis can count on the support of Iran. Iran, though, has not been active in Yemen for a long time - certainly not to the extent it has been in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, the Iranian journalist Saeid Jafari reported in the Middle Eastern online portal Al-Monitor. Nevertheless the close ties date back to the 1980s. The continuing conflict in Yemen is seen as a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran. Both states are struggling to gain dominance in the region and placing great emphasis on religious confession. However, the religious level is just one aspect of the war in a country with 26 million inhabitants - a side issue to the fighting. And the Sunni-dominated terror groups al Qaeda and "Islamic State" (IS) have tried to take advantage of the conflict, upping pressure on the exiled Sunni-led government and the Shiite Houthis alike.

A second Somalia? Nations farther away have followed the developments with concern. Europe and the United States want to keep Yemen, the poorest Arab country, from breaking up completely. Leaders from Washington to Riyadh don't want a second Somalia. Saudi Arabia does not want a failed state on it southern border. A number of military installations and provincial towns are located within rocket range of Yemen. Terrorists could profit heavily from the chaos and insecurity. Already, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has become one of the most dangerous branches of the international terror network. Last week, AQAP seized the southern cities of Jaar and Zinjibar. It only retreated from Jaar. For months IS has been trying to get a foothold in Yemen. With a series of attacks - including the assassination on the governor of Aden - IS is trying to push its rival al Qaeda from the region. The groups are struggling to gain the upper hand in Syria, Libya and other countries. The escalating violence in the port city of Aden will lead to greater involvement by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, said Emily Estelle, from the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute think tank. That means no stability. "The proposed ceasefire will probably not hold," she said, "because both sides are still struggling for greater influence."




i http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/television-and-radio/2015/12/08/Exclusive-documentary-Saudi-Arabia-s-crackdown-on-al-Qaeda.html

Documents

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-AQAP-26