Recently in Yemen Category

Hey, it beats getting a DWI:

"Islamic militants storm hotel serving alcohol, kill two," by Ahmed Al-Haj for the Associated Press, January 4 (thanks to Twostellas):

SANAA, YEMEN—Islamic militants have stormed a hotel serving alcohol in a southern Yemeni city, killing two people and wounding 20 before torching the building.

Nabil Mohammed Youssef, who lives close to the hotel in Aden, says the attack took place early Wednesday.

He says many hotel guests jumped from their rooms on the second and third floor while others made their escape using bed sheets tied together.

A hotel guest says around five masked gunmen stormed the hotel, shooting randomly and then poured fuel on the carpets, setting them on fire. The guest spoke on condition of anonymity fearing militants’ reprisal....

Jihadist forces and other Islamic supremacist thugs have shown a knack in recent months for showing up at demonstrations and doing exactly what protesters are warning against or want to stop. Here is yet another protest in need of a "Thank You For Proving Our Point" sign.

"Islamist fighters halt Yemen peace march: witnesses," from Reuters, December 31:

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Islamist militants fired into the air on Saturday to halt a peace march by thousands of Yemenis who were demanding an end to fighting that has forced them to flee their homes in the south, witnesses said.

Marchers told Reuters they were stopped on a 50 km (31 mile) walk from the port city of Aden to Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province where the army has been battling fighters suspected of having links with al Qaeda.

The southern fighting is one of many challenges facing the impoverished state, which has also been rocked by nearly a year of protests against the 33-year rule of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The United States, and top oil producer Saudi Arabia, are both concerned about the growing chaos in the country, which is close to oil shipping routes.

Analysts fear the unrest could be exploited by al Qaeda's arm in Yemen, seen as the group's most powerful branch.

The marchers said they were calling on both sides to lay down their arms in the south and demanding the government open the Aden-Zinjibar coastal highway, a key trade route which has remained closed during the conflict.

The protesters, who said 20,000 people took part in the march including women and children, told Reuters they forced their way through a military check-point on the road before meeting the militants....

Probably this American went to Yemen to study Islam, and ended up getting involved in jihad warfare. Yet the U.S. Government's official position is that jihad warfare has nothing to do with Islam, and that it is offensive to suggest otherwise.

It's sheer madness. We are ruled by madmen.

"Weeks of clashes in north Yemen kill 200," by Ahmed al-Haj for the Associated Press, December 21 (thanks to Wimpy):

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Nearly 200 people, among them 15 foreigners, have been killed in clashes over the past few weeks between an ultraconservative Islamist group and former Shiite rebels in northern Yemen, a military official and the leader of the Islamist faction said Wednesday. In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Minister said four Russian citizens were among those killed.

The tension between the Salafi Islamists, who are Sunni, and the former Hawthi rebels, who are Shiite, escalated just as Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed in late November a U.S.-backed proposal crafted by powerful Gulf Arab neighbors, under which he transfers power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He agreed to step down after a 10-month uprising against his 33-year authoritarian rule....

Salafi spokesman Surour al-Wadee said 71 Salafi fighters, among them an American and French, Russian, Algerian, Malaysian, Somalian, and Libyan citizens, have been killed in the clashes. A Yemeni military officials said more than 120 Hawthis have been killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Many of the foreigners were studying in the Salafi Dar al-Hadith school in Saada, which has attracted students from around the world. It was set up more than 20 years ago as a learning center to counter Shiite Islam in the area. Its funds often flow from Yemen's neighbor to the north, Saudi Arabia.

What? Salafis studying in an Islamic school? But don't the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims take them aside and explain to them how they're getting Islam all wrong?

Salafism is a particularly hardline branch of Islam. Some Salafis follow a militant ideology similar to al-Qaida's, but the terror network operates separately. Salafi preachers in Saada have used the pulpit to argue that the killing of Hawthi Shiites is an Islamic duty.

During Yemen's uprising, security has unraveled and al-Qaida and other Islamist militants have tried to exploit the vacuum to gain a firmer foothold in the impoverished country. The al-Qaida branch in Yemen is one of the most active in the world.

In the months leading up to Saleh's signing of the agreement to give up power, security forces appeared to have turned a blind eye to Salafis arming themselves and amassing in greater numbers in Saada province. The Saudi government pressures Saleh to step down as of the group of Gulf states that formulated the plan for him to go.

On Tuesday, the Hawthis and Salafis agreed to a cease-fire brokered by opposition tribesmen, politicians and religious figures. It collapsed less than 24 hours later in part of Saada. According to al-Wadee, eight Hawthis and two Salafi fighters were killed on Wednesday.

Al-Qaida fighters have not attempted a cease-fire with Hawthi Shiites. Instead, leading al-Qaida figures in Yemen have reportedly called on fighters in recent weeks to fight the Shiites.

Russia tracks its citizens who travel abroad for training in Muslim seminaries. The Russian Embassy in Yemen counted 36 Russian citizens living in Saada — students at Dar al-Hadith school for Islamic studies and their families....

Tired of widespread poverty and a government perceived as corrupt and abusive, many Muslims from the Caucasus have traveled to the Middle East and South Asia to study with radical Islamic leaders who challenge the Kremlin-backed Muslim clerics at home.

Study after study has shown that poverty doesn't cause terrorism, but AP will never admit that. And why should they? Just look at all the Haitian suicide bombers!

In 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Russia's Muslim leaders to join forces in an effort to keep young Muslims in Russia and quell recruitment by extremist groups abroad. In May, Alexander Khloponin, Medvedev's envoy to the Caucaus region, said authorities were planning to closely monitor young people who go abroad to study Islam.

Obama better take Medvedev aside and have a word with him: it looks as if he is on the verge of committing "Islamophobia."

It seems like one can just count on this sort of thing happening now and then in Yemen. "'Al-Qaeda jail break' in Yemeni city of Aden," from BBC News, December 12:

Twelve al-Qaeda militants have broken out of a prison in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, officials have said.

The militants, and two others, escaped through a six metre tunnel dug from the yard at the city's central prison.

The escapees were in the process of being tried for bank robbery or were charged with assassinations of security officers, the Yemeni officials said.

In June, al-Qaeda fighters raided the central jail in the southern city Mukalla, freeing dozens of prisoners.

Yemen's army has been fighting heavy gun battles with al-Qaeda militants in different parts of Yemen. [...]

The most intense fighting between the army and al-Qaeda is in the city of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, where militants control much of the city.

Jihad causes poverty:

The United Nations says that suspected al-Qaeda fighters in southern Yemen have displaced 45,000 people.

Resistance would be fierce because child marriage is defended with the example of Muhammad, the supreme model of conduct for Muslims according to Qur'an 33:21, who consummated his marriage to Aisha when she was nine and he was fifty-four (Sahih Bukhari 7.62.88). Muslims in countries far removed from one another believe this and act accordingly. The practice of child marriage is not persisting because Muslims in Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and elsewhere are reading American blogs.

"Human Rights Watch urges Yemen to ban child marriage, details plight of country’s child brides," for the Associated Press, December 8:

CAIRO — A leading international rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Yemen to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage to improve girls’ opportunities for education and protect their human rights.

Human Rights Watch said widespread child marriage in the Arab world’s poorest country jeopardizes Yemeni girls’ health and keeps them second-class citizens.

As always, the elephant in the room is Sharia.

A report by the New York-based group said Yemeni government and U.N. data showed that in some rural areas of Yemen, girls as young as eight were married off. Some have told HRW they were subjected to marital rape and domestic abuse. [...]

There is a Yemeni tribal saying, according to a 2008 New York Times report: "Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee [for a good marriage]."

The issue of Yemen’s child brides received widespread attention four years ago, when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce.

That was Nojud Ali. Let us also not forget Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali. They were lucky. Fawziya Abdullah Yousef, who died in childbirth at 12, was not. Nor was an unnamed 11-year-old hospitalized for genital injuries. Nor was Elham Assi, who died at 13 of bleeding and genital injuries after her husband of four days, enraged at his performance problems, obtained enhancement drugs and raped her repeatedly, even after taking her a clinic that told him to leave her alone for 10 days due to injuries he had already inflicted.

These are only the stories that got out.

A February 2009 law set Yemen’s minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic and sent back to parliament’s constitutional committee for a review. The review has since been stalled by a group of lawmakers contending that enforcing a minimum age would be contrary to Islamic law.

Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her work in advancing women’s rights, has also highlighted the issue.

In a 2010 opinion piece, Karman wrote that there “is a vast space in our Islamic Law heritage for reaching consensus on adopting the age of 18 as a minimum age for marriage.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, of which she is a member, may be more resistant to the idea of such an undertaking, now that it is operating from a position of increasing strength. In any case, the same obstacles remain: reaching that consensus within a framework that calls itself Sharia will require a large number of clerics to accept a revisionist narrative, and innovation (bida) that flies in the face of centuries of pre-existing texts and clerical consensus.

And Barack Obama couldn't be more pleased: "Barack Obama called on Yemenis to immediately implement the 'historic transition' that had been agreed."

This CNN article, by the way, continues the stupid mainstream media practice of referring to pro-Sharia Islamic supremacists as "conservatives," so that conservatives are those who favor Sharia and simultaneously also those who oppose it. "Yemen after Saleh: Still a treacherous road," by Tim Lister for CNN, November 24:

(CNN) -- After months of bloodshed, intrigue and revenge that made Yemen seem like an Arabian version of Hamlet, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has finally transferred his powers to his vice president, and elections are to be held in three months....

April Longley Alley, Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, says the Riyadh deal offers an "opportunity to move past the current political impasse and to deal with critical issues like deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions as well as the very difficult task of institutional reform."

Even so, Longley Alley and other analysts expect the epilogue to be anything but predictable. There are plenty of competing elements left behind: the thousands of mainly young demonstrators who took to the streets of Sanaa and other cities in January to demand democratic change, the tribal alliance that took up arms against Saleh, secessionists in the south and a Shiite rebellion in the north, well-organized Islamist groups and a budding al Qaeda franchise.

Perhaps the most powerful figure in Yemen now is Brig. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the 1st Armored Division. He defected in March and took a chunk of the army with him. His units now control northern districts of the capital and are facing off against powerful remnants of the Saleh clan. The president's son, Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, long groomed to be his successor, and his nephew, Yahya Muhammad Saleh, command the most effective units....

Al-Ahmar makes some Western officials nervous because of his links with radical Sunni Islamists. Yemeni observers say the Muslim Brotherhood has long been influential within al-Ahmar's military command, and he is known for his antipathy toward Yemen's Shiites. A U.S. diplomatic cable from 2005 said that "Ali Mohsen's questionable dealings with terrorists and extremists would make his accession unwelcome to the U.S. and others in the international community."

Others in this powerful clan include Hamid al-Ahmar, a leader of the Islamist party Islah and a prominent businessman who has long been an opponent of the president. His brother Sadiq also has armed supporters in and around Sanaa....

Others who may play a significant role include the cleric Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who heads the Salafist (very conservative) wing of the Islah party. He is feared by liberal Yemenis....

Whatever power structure emerges, Yemen's next leaders will face daunting tasks as they inherit a state where oil revenues have declined and the economy is in ruins, where poverty is endemic and a young and rapidly growing population faces a chronic shortage of water. Not to mention the percolating rebellions in the south and north, and a well-entrenched affiliate of al Qaeda....

"As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands: a retribution for their deed and exemplary punishment from Allah and Allah is Exalted in Power, full of Wisdom." (Qur'an 5:38)

This article says that Al-Qaeda is implementing a perversion of Islam in Yemen, but how exactly is it a perversion of Islam to follow an explicit directive of the Qur'an?

Sharia Alert from Yemen: "Al-Qaeda lashes 5 youth over alleged drugs in Yemen," by Chiara Onassis for Bikyamasr, November 13 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

SANA’A: According to reports coming from the southern Yemen province of Abyan, al-Qaeda militants have punished a group of five youth for consuming narcotics by lashing them.

The group, Ansar al Shariah, which has declared it wants to restore their own interpretation of the Sharia Law, or Islamic law, has been handing out public corporal punishment over the past few months.

A young man recently passed away after his hand was cut off as he had been accused of stealing electric cables by the Islamists.

According to al-Arabiya news channel, the punishment was carried out in a field just outside Jaar, a town under the Islamic group’s control in front of dozens of witnesses.

The militants appear to be mimicking the Taliban’s tactics, instilling fear of reprisals into the civilian population as they pervert Islam to serve their own selfish ambitions, analysts say.

After receiving 80 lashes each, the young men were released.

Residents, which have been living in fear ever since the al-Qaeda fighters occupied their town, are now living an absolute nightmare, living under the “tyrannical rule” of a group of “fanatics whose understanding of Islam is biased,” locals argue.

Then they ought to be able to refute them on Islamic grounds, no?

In the U.S., if you work in counterterrorism, they just charge you with "Islamophobia." "Car bomb kills head of Yemeni counterterrorism unit," by Mohammed Jamjoom for CNN, October 28 (thanks to Kenneth):

(CNN) -- A car bomb exploded in Aden on Friday, killing the commander of a Yemeni counterterrorism unit and seriously injuring two children, according to a Yemeni government official who is not authorized to speak to the media.

Major Gen. Ali Al-Hajji commanded a battalion of Central Security Forces troops, which includes counterterrorism units, the official said.

The bomb was planted in Al-Hajji's car and exploded while the vehicle was traveling near the 22 May Soccer Stadium, according to the official.

Two children standing near the car when it exploded, ages 5 and 14, were seriously injured by the blast and were taken to a hospital, the official said...

No suspect has been named, but Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Ansar Al-Sharia have stepped up attacks against security forces in Aden the last few months.

"Following the announcement, Ikhwanweb, the official Muslim Brotherhood website, posted on its Twitter feed: 'Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood member Tawakkul Karman wins Nobel Peace Prize.'"

An update on this story. "Nobel Peace panel stands behind Muslim Brotherhood winner," by Oren Kessler in the Jerusalem Post, October 12:

The chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee has dismissed concerns that one of this year’s three recipients, Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, represents a party directly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Thorbojern Jagland told reporters in Oslo this weekend that he disagrees with the “perception” widespread in the West that the Brotherhood is a threat to democracy.

“There are many signals that that kind of movement can be an important part of the solution,” he said. “We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context.

“Namely, if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy.”

Karman, 32 and a mother of three, is a leading member of Islah (Reform), Yemen’s main opposition movement. The movement is split into three wings: a tribal confederacy led by the head of the powerful Al- Ahmar tribe; a political movement that operates under the Muslim Brotherhood banner; and a religious branch linked to the worldwide Salafi movement.

The last of these is led by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a Sunni religious scholar and former adviser to Osama bin Laden who is considered a terrorist by the US.

In 2003, the last time the country held legislative elections, the Islah party took 23 percent of the vote. Karman’s selection represents the first time a Muslim Brotherhood member has been singled out for the award.

Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee also shared in this year’s prize, the winners of which were announced Friday.

Following the announcement, Ikhwanweb, the official Muslim Brotherhood website, posted on its Twitter feed: “Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood member Tawakkul Karman wins Nobel Peace Prize.”

In 2004, shortly after joining Islah, Karman appeared in public for the first time without a niqab, or face-covering veil, which she said is not dictated by the strictures of Islam....

Confirmation, tributes, calls for revenge. Lather, rinse, repeat. An update on this story. "Al-Qaida confirms killing of US-born cleric," by Ryan Lucas for the Associated Press, October 10:

CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoot on Monday confirmed the killing of U.S.-born militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki late last month and vowed to avenge the prominent propagandist's death.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki, who died in a Sept. 30 U.S. drone strike in the mountains of Yemen, was the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since Osama bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in May. He had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 — making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list.

On Monday, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement posted on Islamist extremist websites that al-Awlaki was killed by an American airstrike, along with three other militants, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites. AQAP, which has become the most active al-Qaida branch in recent years, vowed to strike back.

"The blood of the sheik (al-Awlaki) and his brothers will not go in vain; there are heroes behind him who do not sleep under oppression, and they will retaliate soon," the group said. "We and the Americans are at war: we get them and they get us, and the end is for those who are patient - they are the ones who will be victorious."

The strike that killed al-Awlaki also killed a second American, Samir Khan, who edited al-Qaida's Internet magazine. AQAP said two other militants were also killed.

Imam Potrzebie is alive and well. The fold-in fatwa will see publication yet!

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, was believed to be key in turning al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen into what American officials have called the most significant and immediate threat to the Untied States. The branch plotted several failed attacks on U.S. soil — the botched Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up an American airliner heading to Detroit and a foiled 2010 attempt to send mail bombs to Chicago-area synagogues.

Known as an eloquent preacher who spread English-language sermons on the internet calling for "holy war" against the United States, al-Awlaki's role was to inspire and — it is believed — even directly recruit militants to carry out attacks.

In its statement Monday, AQAP warned that while the U.S. may have killed al-Awlaki, "it cannot kill his ideas," and that his death "gives new life and revival to his ideas and style."

It said that al-Awlaki "has students who he taught and disciples who benefited from him all over the earth, who will follow his steps and his path."

U.S. officials believe al-Awlaki became involved in operational planning for AQAP, and Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

Al-Awlaki also exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Indeed. Al-Qaeda benefits not only from the decentralization of its "franchises," but from the fact that they did not invent the jihadist ideology that drives them. They are simply the best-known brand name.

"FBI chief: Qaeda still a 'threat' after Awlaqi death," from Middle East Online, October 7:

WASHINGTON - The killing of US-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi has weakened Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but the group remains a "significant threat" to the United States, the head of the FBI said Thursday.

Awlaqi -- the leader of external operations for AQAP -- and Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who was the editor of Al-Qaeda's English-language magazine, were killed last week in a suspected US drone strike in Yemen.

"Despite this blow to their leadership, AQAP remains a significant threat to the homeland, and we must maintain our vigilance in responding to this threat," FBI Director Robert Mueller told the House intelligence committee.

"AQAP has proven its capability to direct attacks into the United States, and a strike against its leadership, even a significant one, does not eliminate the potential for retaliation or other action by AQAP."

Matthew Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, agreed.

"We remain concerned about the group's intent to attack Western targets, as well as its propaganda efforts designed to inspire like-minded Western extremists," Olsen said in his testimony before the committee.

"And we are monitoring how the loss of Awlaqi and Khan will affect AQAP's propaganda machine."

There has been some debate over whether the underwear bomb builder was also killed in the strike.

Olsen also expressed concerns about ongoing links between AQAP and Somalia's Shebab rebels, who claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack this week on a government compound in Mogadishu that left more than 70 people dead.

"I would say that that remains a significant concern -- the potential alliance between Shebab and AQAP," Olsen said, adding that Awlaqi's death would have little effect on the connections between the two.

"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." -- motto of the Muslim Brotherhood

"Nobel Peace Prize goes to women's rights activists," by Bjoern H. Amland and Karl Ritter for the Associated Press, October 7 (thanks to Northern Virginiastan):

[...] The 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award was split three ways between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee from the same African country and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen — the first Arab woman to win the prize.

The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee told The Associated Press that Karman's award should be seen as a signal that both women and Islam have important roles to play in the uprisings known as the Arab Spring, the wave of anti-authoritarian revolts that have challenged rulers across the Arab world.

"The Arab Spring cannot be successful without including the women in it," Jagland said.

He said Karman, 32, belongs to a Muslim movement with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group "which in the West is perceived as a threat to democracy." He added that "I don't believe that. There are many signals that that kind of movement can be an important part of the solution."

Yemen is an extremely conservative society but a feature of the revolt there has been a prominent role for women who turned out for protests in large numbers....

Remember: for AP, you're a "conservative" if you want Sharia, and a "conservative" if you oppose Sharia. For the mainstream media, it has come to this level of analysis: you're a "liberal" if you're someone they like, and a "conservative" if you're someone they dislike.

A bad day for the Usual Gang of Idiots who incited and instructed prospective jihadist murderers.

This, too, is likely to be painted as a petty political "assassination" by an annoyed government, even though Khan was reported to be "increasingly involved" in operational activities by al-Qaeda. Al-Awlaki was certainly the main target of the strike; that they would travel together was an overconfident miscalculation. "American Jihadi Samir Khan Killed With Awlaki," by Mark Schone and Matthew Cole for ABC News, September 30:

A young American who edited al Qaeda's English-language magazine, and had urged Muslims to mount deadly attacks on U.S. targets, was killed in the same CIA drone strike that eliminated Anwar Awlaki in Yemen Friday, U.S. officials said.

Khan, 25, was the Saudi-born, New York-raised editor behind "Inspire" magazine, the English language online publication of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Khan had become a rising figure in jihadist propaganda and an "aspiring" Awlaki, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

But while Awlaki relied on sermons to recruit jihadis, Khan used sarcasm and idiomatic English in an attempt to appeal to Western youth. As Khan himself has said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I [am] Al Qaeda to the core." He titled a rebuke of toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak "A Cold Diss." Khan's ability to use American vernacular, like a graphic depicting graffiti that reads, "Jihad 4 Eva," had prompted concerns that young Muslims with an interest in jihad and al Qaeda would be drawn to a voice similar to their own.

"He does appear to be increasingly involved with operational activities [of Al Qaeda]", a U.S. official told ABC News in 2010.

British officials found copies of "Inspire" in the apartments of several suspects arrested and charged in connection to a bomb plot in the U.K.Officials said the suspects were avid followers of both the magazine and Awlaki.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American college student charged with plotting an attack on a Christmas lighting event in Portland, Oregon, last year, was in contact with Khan, and wrote articles for him, authorities say.

Mohamud, who was arrested in an FBI sting, is accused of attempting to detonate what he believed to be a car bomb in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square via cellphone during the annual lighting of the Christmas tree, which had drawn a crowd of thousands. The FBI affidavit alleges that Mohamud told FBI agents that he had written four articles since 2009 for two different on-line jihadist magazines edited and distributed by Samir Khan.

Khan had edited seven separate issues of "Inspire" since launching the publication in 2010, penning such articles as "How To Build A Bomb In the Kitchen of Your Mom." Inspire carried sermons by Awlaki and other jihadi figures, boasted about the failed "printer bomb" cargo plane plot, and paid tribute to Osama bin Laden before and after his death. It outlined various techniques for jihadis to attack Americans with U.S. borders, including using pick-up trucks to mow down pedestrians, how to blow up buildings with natural gas, and how to use an AK-47 automatic rifle. The magazines grew in graphic sophistication with each issue, and Khan seemed to write, edit or design the majority of the content.

In the latest issue, which expressed frustration with Iran for spreading conspiracy theories about 9/11 instead of giving credit to al Qaeda, the editor-in-chief called himself "Yahya Ibrahim," but U.S. officials suspect that's just a pseudonym for Khan....

At last, silence from al-Awlaki

A desperately evil man who was linked to the 9/11 attacks (he was "spiritual adviser" to a couple of the hijackers) as well as to the Fort Hood jihad murder, the Christmas underwear jihad bombing attempt on an airplane over Detroit, and the Times Square jihad mass murder attempt, has apparently gone to his fiery grave. "U.S. Born Terror Boss Anwar al-Awlaki Killed," from FoxNews.com, September 30:

SANAA, Yemen – Terror mastermind and senior Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is dead a senior U.S. official confirms.

Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in Al-Qaeda's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said.

The Yemeni government and Defense Ministry announced al-Awlaki's death, but gave no details. A senior U.S. official said American intelligence supports the claim that he had been killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders said al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans. They said pilotless drones had been seen over the area in previous days....

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 -- making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, was believed to be key in turning Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen into what American officials have called the most significant and immediate threat to the Untied States. The branch, led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi, plotted several failed attacks on U.S. soil -- the botched Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up an American airliner heading to Detroit and a foiled 2010 attempt to main explosives to Chicago.

Known as an eloquent preacher who spread English-language sermons on the Internet calling for "holy war" against the United States, al-Awlaki's role was to inspire and -- it is believed -- even directly recruit militants to carry out attacks....

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other Al-Qaeda leaders, in Al-Qaeda strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

Al-Awlaki also exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims. The cleric similarly said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack....

Defectors from the Yemeni army have not often been mentioned in prior coverage, but they played a role here. "Yemen’s Islamic militias, defected army attack village near Sana’a International Airport," by Mohammed al-Kibsi for the Yemen Observer, September 6 (thanks to Twostellas):

Militias of the Islah party Yemen’s branch of the Islamic brotherhood and the defected army lead by General Ali Mohsen launched a missile and artillery offensive the village of Bait al-Theeb in Arhab district, near Sana’a International Airport, on Tuesday, said a local source in Arhab district.

the [sic] source said that the militias of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen (Reform Party) and the First Armored Division, led by dissident Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar bombed houses in the village of Beit al-Theeb using Katyusha rockets and mortar shells in retaliation for the villagers who appeared on the screen of Yemen’s setline TV. and revealed the truth of what is happening in their area and expressed attitudes that reject the plans of terrorist and disruptive to those criminal elements.

the [sic] source said that the radical Islamic militia launched, last night, Katyusha rockets at houses and launched mortar shells at the village during the afternoon prayers which resulted in damage of the residents houses and injured a number of them.

Zinjibar has now been in jihadist hands since the end of May. "Four Yemeni soldiers killed in clash with 'Qaeda'," from Agence France-Presse, August 28:

Four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in a a fierce firefight between Yemeni troops and suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen near the southern city of Zinjibar on Sunday, a military official said.

Three gunmen were also killed in the clash, according to a medical source.

The clash erupted at Dofes, a village south of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, as troops tried to advance towards the city that has been mostly in the hands of gunmen since late May, the official said.

The four bodies were transferred to a military hospital in Aden, as well as the 12 wounded soldiers, including a colonel, the official said.

A medical source at the hospital said that the bodies of three gunmen killed n the firefight were brought in by the army.

Since the end of May, fighters linked to Al-Qaeda have seized control of several Abyan towns, taking advantage of the weakening of central authority amid nationwide protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The veteran leader has been recovering in Saudi Arabia for more than two months from bomb blast wounds.

As noted below, al-Shabaab is not alone in seeking to benefit from piracy. In particular, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has also taken an interest, as have Iran's Revolutionary Guards. "Maritime Jihad," by Ryan Mauro for Frontpage Magazine, August 24:

In February, four Americans were held for ransom by Somali pirates and executed. The pirates have the viciousness, skills and assets to bring havoc to the seas for a price, and Islamist terrorists are willing to pay. The U.S. commander for Africa predicts that Al-Qaeda will team up with the pirate gangs, as terrorist groups see maritime targets as a weak point for their enemies.

The U.S. commander overseeing Africa, General Carter Ham, confirms that the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, al-Shabaab, is making money from piracy off the coast of East Africa. He predicts that Al-Qaeda will directly become involved with the Somali pirates if the problem is not tackled. Pirate activity sharply increased in 2008, coinciding with advances by al-Shabaab. The partnership between the pirates and terrorists is usually not one of ideological affinity, but of business and sometimes, coercion. For example, in February, al-Shabaab members forced a group of pirates to give them 20 percent of what they earn from ransoms. "They demanded we allow six of their fighters to board each of our hijacked ships. We have not left our houses…Worse, we are constantly receiving threatening text messages," one pirate said.

In April 2008, a group of Somali pirates got paid a $1.2 million ransom to let a Spanish fishing vessel and 26 hostages go free. Al-Shabaab received five percent of the payment. Predictably, such payments to the pirates encouraged them to continue their profitable practices. There have been dozens of hijackings, hostage-takings and raids since, appeasing the pirates and indirectly financing terrorists. In April 2009, former ambassador to Ethiopia and expert on East Africa, David H. Shinn, said that al-Shabaab sometimes receives a protection fee from the pirates of 5 to 10 percent. If the group trains the pirates, it earns 20 percent. If the Al-Qaeda affiliate finances the entire operation, the commission is as high as 50 percent.

In July 2009, Somali officials said that al-Shabaab was hiring pirates to smuggle in members of Al-Qaeda to the country. It was said that up to 1,000 foreign jihadists had been brought in that year. In some cases, the jihadists view the pirates as soldiers defending Islam. In 2008, a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said to the Somali pirates, "[T]ake caution and prepare yourselves…Increase your strikes against the Crusaders at sea and in Djibouti." A spokesman for al-Shabaab praised them for "protecting the coast against the enemies of Allah." Another group tied to Al-Qaeda, the Ras Kamboni Brigades, said they are "part of the Mujahideen" even if they are unsavory "money-seekers."

According to Jane's Intelligence Review, the pirates and terrorists work together in arms trafficking, and the Somali pirates are helping al-Shabaab develop maritime capabilities. Al-Shabaab is using hijacked cargo ships to train its operatives in their use. This poses a serious threat to maritime traffic, and a successful attack would have a major economic impact. The Somali Prime Minister made the point in March, "Why bother with a small plane when you can capture a tanker?"

It is hard to understand why there is debate over whether there is a link between the pirates and terrorists. As the Long War Journal said,"The pirates and terrorists are often one in the same, or if not, are in close cooperation." The Al-Qaeda affiliate in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, has worked with another affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, to give their operatives scuba diving training and other instruction for maritime attacks. India's intelligence service has confirmed a linkage between terrorists and pirates in the Indian Ocean. Lashkar-e-Taiba has set up a branch in Karachi, Pakistan specifically devoted to maritime terrorism.

Joseph Tenaglia, CEO of Tactical Defense Concepts, a maritime security group, told FrontPage that"Jihadist groups have come to see piracy as a lucrative means to fund their activities."

"There are reports of illicit funds emanating from piracy in Somalia moving through banks in Yemen to other Middle Eastern countries. There have been several reports of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps involvement in piracy and threats to shipping vessels in the region," Tenaglia said.

According to an associate of Tactical Defense Concepts with extensive experience in the Middle East, "Al Qaeda in the Yemen has a growing interest in hijacking tankers in particular because it would give them independence from relying on donations."

Targeting al-Shabaab in Somalia is necessary, but it will not put an end to the growing threat of piracy and terrorist involvement in the activity. As long as it remains a profitable endeavor, it will be attractive to criminals and terrorists alike. One of the problems is that crews are rarely armed to defend themselves.

"The fact is that an armed vessel has never been taken by pirates," Tenaglia said. "Increased violence and resulting financial losses are causing a change of opinion. Many shipping companies are finally giving their vessels armed protect, usually with trained security teams."...

Escalation, in an update on this story. It's gotten so bad that Yemen is now "restive," a reliable term in news reports for jihad-afflicted areas.

Arabia Felix is now Arabia Restive. "Qaeda suspects kill seven Yemen soldiers: officer," from Agence France-Presse, August 23:

Seven soldiers were killed on Tuesday and 30 others wounded in an attack launched by suspected Al-Qaeda militants on a base in the restive southern province of Abyan, a senior officer told AFP.

"Six soldiers and an officer were killed and 30 others wounded when Al-Qaeda militants attacked the camp of the 201 Brigade in Dofes," south of Abyan, capital of Zinjibar, the officer said.

The attackers had used the cover of a wooded area around the base to approach a unit of the brigade and opened fire with rocket-launchers and automatic weapons.

An official from a military hospital that took in the casualties confirmed the toll.

On Monday, government warplanes killed six presumed Al-Qaeda fighters in Arkub, another village in Abyan province, that they had seized a day earlier.

An Arabia-Ain't-Felix Update, following al-Qaeda's takeover of a third town earlier this week. The dual attacks, the targets, and the tactic of suicide bombing all suggest al-Qaeda's involvement. "Suicide blasts kill 11 tribesmen in southern Yemen," by Ahmed al-Haj for the Associated Press, August 21:

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A pair of suicide bombings targeting anti-al-Qaida tribesmen in southern Yemen killed 11 people on Sunday, tribal and security officials said.

Both blasts took place in Abyan province, where al-Qaida-linked militants have been taking advantage of a breakdown in security linked to Yemen's political turmoil to take over towns and large swaths of territory in the south.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber slammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint manned by anti-al-Qaida tribesmen, killing eight and wounding 20.

A suicide bomber carried out the second attack, blowing himself up in the middle of a gathering of tribesmen, the officials said. Three men were killed in the second attack.

The officials said suspicion immediately fell on al-Qaida-linked militants in the area who have routinely targeted tribesmen hostile to the terror network or formed militias to fight its members.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Yemen is home to one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

An update from Arabia Not-Terribly-Felix. "Residents: Islamists seize third Yemeni town," from MSNBC, August 18 (thanks to Twostellas):

ADEN — Islamist militants have taken control of the southern Yemeni coastal town of Shaqra, the third town to fall into their hands, tribal sources and residents said Wednesday.

The tribal sources said government forces had allowed the militants to seize the town with little resistance. The militants, which the government says have ties to al-Qaida, entered the town in cars from another city already under their control....

"A white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream." "Qaeda Trying to Harness Toxin for Bombs, U.S. Officials Fear," by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker for the New York Times, August 13 (thanks to Kenneth):

WASHINGTON — American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States.

For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream.

Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are trying to move castor beans and processing agents to a hideaway in Shabwa Province, in one of Yemen’s rugged tribal areas controlled by insurgents. The officials say the evidence points to efforts to secretly concoct batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces, like a shopping mall, an airport or a subway station.

President Obama and his top national security aides were first briefed on the threat last year and have received periodic updates since then, top aides said. Senior American officials say there is no indication that a ricin attack is imminent, and some experts say the Qaeda affiliate is still struggling with how to deploy ricin as an effective weapon.

These officials also note that ricin’s utility as a weapon is limited because the substance loses its potency in dry, sunny conditions, and unlike many nerve agents, it is not easily absorbed through the skin. Yemen is a hot, dry country, posing an additional challenge to militants trying to produce ricin there.

But senior American officials say they are tracking the possibility of a threat very closely, given the Yemeni affiliate’s proven ability to devise plots, including some thwarted only at the last minute: a bomb sewn into the underwear of a Nigerian man aboard a commercial jetliner to Detroit in December 2009, and printer cartridges packed with powerful explosives in cargo bound for Chicago 10 months later.

“The potential threat of weapons of mass destruction, likely in a simpler form than what people might imagine but still a form that would have a significant psychological impact, from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, is very, very real,” Michael E. Leiter, who retired recently as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said at a security conference last month. “It’s not hard to develop ricin.”...

Arabia Felix: not so felix these days. "Deadly car bomb blast strikes Yemeni army checkpoint," from Reuters, July 24:

REUTERS - A booby-trapped car drove into an army checkpoint outside of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden and exploded in an apparent suicide attack that killed at least six people and injured 15 on Sunday, police and medical sources said.

The army has strengthened security around the coastal city to try to stop Islamist militants from slipping into the area after they seized several areas in the neighbouring province of Abyan during months of protests to try to oust the president.

Aden lies east of a shipping strait, where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

“The initial evidence we’ve gathered suggests it was a suicide bomb attack,” a local police source told Reuters.

The blast comes days after a car rigged with explosives blew up and killed a British ship surveyor in Aden, which officials said was a targeted attack against the long-time resident.

Witnesses to the checkpoint attack on Sunday said they saw a car speed into a street cordoned off by armoured vehicles, setting at least two armoured vehicles ablaze.

“The car crashed into a military armoured vehicle, which exploded and caught fire. The soldiers started firing heavily,” a witness said.

Security forces sealed off the al-Harba area of Aden and witnesses said they could still hear heavy gunfire.

Aden sits to the west of the flashpoint province of Abyan, which has descended into daily bloodshed since militants seized at least two cities and a makeshift military base, forcing some 54,000 residents to flee to Aden for refuge.

The army has staged a fierce offensive against the militants, who they say are linked to al Qaeda, but has yet to regain control of those areas.

Reinforcements finally arrived, but only after situation became so dire that a colonel accused the government of deliberately allowing losses to "prove" the country needs Saleh.

The situation had become so dire that a colonel in the Yemeni army accused the government of deliberately allowing losses in an attempt to "prove" the country needed the injured president Saleh to keep it from collapsing. "Yemen army, tribes in offensive on militants in south," by Mohammed Mukhashaf for Reuters, July 17:

ADEN (Reuters) - Yemeni forces backed by armed tribesmen launched an offensive to retake Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province, officials said on Sunday, after months of fighting with Islamist militants who seized the city.

Dozens have been killed and some 54,000 civilians have fled Abyan, which has descended into daily bloodshed as the army confronts militants the government says have ties to al Qaeda.

The region lies east of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

After weeks of pleas for support from a besieged military brigade near Zinjibar, the government sent the first reinforcements on Saturday, aiming to flush militants out of the seaside city.

"The head of the Defense Ministry sent reinforcements including tanks, rocket launchers and 500 extra soldiers," a local official said.

"These forces began attacking (the city) backed by heavy tank shelling and rocket attacks from naval ships in order to liberate the 25th Brigade just outside Zinjibar and under siege for over a month."

Tribesmen who joined the offensive said they had sent about 450 men to Zinjibar. They had begun to plan attacks on the militants last week, saying the army had been ineffective.

The heavy offensive, which began late on Saturday, has caused dozens of casualties in Zinjibar, residents told Reuters by telephone, describing how army ambulances screeched through the city on Sunday, filled with dozens of wounded people.

In nearby Jaar, Islamist militants who seized the city in March sent gunmen to surround and occupy a government hospital, medics at the hospital told Reuters.

The militants were now using the hospital to treat their wounded fighters from Zinjibar, they said. Doctors and patients were permitted to leave the hospital, they said, as the militants brought their own medical team into the hospital. [...]

Opposition groups accuse Saleh of letting his forces ease up in the south to stoke fears in the international community that only he stood in the way of a militant takeover....

If true, it might be the first documented case of Munchausen Syndrome as national policy.

Yemen has long been implicated in a double game of its own. As one Yemeni official described the country in 2008: "Yemen is like a bus station — we stop some terrorists, and we send others on to fight elsewhere ... We appease our partners in the West, but we are not really helping."

That acknowledgement makes the colonel's accusations seem more plausible. "Officials: Yemen government allowing al-Qaida wins," from the Associated Press, July 2:

SANAA (AP) — A Yemeni army colonel and a local official are accusing the weak central government of allowing al-Qaida-linked militants to exploit the country's turmoil and overrun entire swaths of land in the volatile south.

They say the aim is to show the West what Yemen would look like if wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh were to relinquish power as opposition protesters have demanded for months.

Col. Mohammed al-Samwali on Saturday accused the Defense Ministry of intentionally hesitating to send reinforcements and supplies to his unit, which is battling al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Sharia group that seized the Abyan provincial capital, Zinjibar.

Abyan official Abdel-Majed al-Salahi claimed the government plans to let "at least five southern cities fall into the hands of extremists."

More on this story. It is not entirely clear whether the "daggers" the inmates attacked guards with were conventional or improvised weapons. But as this report details, there was much more going on than that, and therefore an even higher level of coordination, some means of communication with the outside, and clearly a channel for contraband.

And one would assume this was purportedly a maximum- or high-security prison. "Dozens of Islamist militants tunnel out of Yemeni prison," by Mohammed al-Qadhi and Peter Finn for the Washington Post, June 22:

SANAA, Yemen — More than 60 Islamist militants tunneled out of a prison in Yemen on Wednesday in a well-executed escape that highlighted the security risks in a nation that is increasingly unstable and home to al-Qaeda’s most potent regional affiliate.

The prison break, which occurred in the eastern port city of Mukalla, was coordinated with militants attacking from the outside to divert the guards — a tactic that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as AQAP, used last summer to free prisoners in the southern city of Aden.

Among the escapees Wednesday were members of an al-Qaeda cell that has killed foreign tourists and tried to attack the U.S. Embassy in Yemen and other Western targets, according to Yemeni officials. AQAP was behind the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound commercial flight on Christmas Day 2009 and the mailing of bombs on cargo planes destined for the United States.

The prison break could reinject committed fighters into the group’s ranks. Yemeni officials have not released a list of escapees, but one official told The Washington Post that 57 of the 62 men, many of whom fled into nearby mountains, had been convicted on terrorism charges and that some had been sentenced to death.

One is the loneliest number. 62 is a very worrying number:

“Even as we don’t know exactly who escaped yet, 62 is a very worrying number,” said Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen and a diplomat in residence at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “The potential for destruction and disruption is high, although AQAP’s ability to be a political force, in whatever small area they control, is very limited.”

The prison in Mukalla, which is about 300 miles east of Aden, held up to 100 convicts who were associated with al-Qaeda or who had been imprisoned after returning from Iraq, where they had joined the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition, according to Yemeni officials. They said two Syrians and two Saudis were among those who escaped.

The inmates dug the 50-yard tunnel themselves, said one jail official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give details of the escape.

They attacked a guard with daggers, snatched his gun and fired it as they were making their escape, the official said. One guard was fatally shot, and another was wounded. At the same time, militants attacked from the outside, and a gun battle raged for 30 minutes while the prisoners fled....

The next question in any of these cases is always the matter of inside help or negligence. "Al-Qaeda militants escape Yemen prison," from the Telegraph, June 22:

In a carefully choreographed escape, the militants attacked their guards and seized their weapons just as bands of heavily armed attackers descended on the prison in Mukalla on the Arabian Sea.

The 62 escapees included militants convicted on terror charges or held in protective custody pending trial, according to officials. Two were reportedly rearrested.

The jail is believed to house more than 100 al-Qaeda militants.

The last major jail breakout by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen took place in 2006, when 23 escaped a Sana'a detention facility including Qassim al-Raimi, who has become the dominant figure in al-Qaeda's most active franchise.

The branch has been linked to several nearly successful attacks on US targets, including the plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009. The group also put sophisticated bombs into US-addressed parcels that made it onto cargo flights....

The jihadists, some of whom "call themselves Ansar al Sharia, or Supporters of Islamic Law," have declared their intention of forming an Islamic state. That, after all, is the fundamental purpose of jihad in all its forms, other "underlying causes" notwithstanding. "Source: Yemeni troops fight Islamists for control of province," from CNN, June 19:

(CNN) -- At least a dozen Islamic militants and two Yemeni troops died overnight as Yemen fights to wrest control of Abyan province from militants, a senior security official in the southern province told CNN Sunday.

Qasim Bin Hadi, the head of security in Zinjibar in Abyan, said that the city has turned into a ghost town and that clashes between government forces and al Qaeda militants have been nonstop the past two days.

"Bodies of dead people are everywhere in the streets," said Bin Hadi.

Separately, more than 100 influential religious and tribal leaders said President Ali Abdullah Saleh was not able to lead the country and should step down.

"Saleh was injured seriously during the assassination attempt on his life. We call on Saleh to hand over powers to his vice president Abdu Rabu Mansoor Hadi, to save the country from further clashes and bloodshed," said the statement, which was circulated to the media.

Saleh and other senior officials were injured June 3 in an attack on the mosque at the presidential palace. Saleh is being treated in Saudi Arabia. Officials loyal to him have said he will return when he has recovered. [...]

In recent weeks, government troops have battled both anti-government tribal forces and Islamic militants, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. [...]

According to residents in Zinjibar, militants have succeeded in seizing a large number of heavy artillery from the government during the clashes the past two days.

Jihadists from places far removed from one another are able to find common cause because the purpose of jihad in all its forms is the same: to impose Islamic law. That, once again, is what has happened here, as a self-described al-Qaeda member interviewed below calls the seizure of Zinjibar the first step in establishing an Islamic state.

An update on this story. "Militants said to gain ground in south Yemen," by Jeb Boone the Los Angeles Times, June 8:

Hundreds of Yemeni and foreign fighters, including members of an Al Qaeda affiliate, are pouring into a provincial capital after government forces fled in chaos, according to a local official and a fighter who described himself as an Al Qaeda member.

The chaos in Yemen has provided an opening for tribal fighters to assert themselves in some parts of the country, and to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a militant group that has targeted the United States.

The head of Zinjibar's city council, Col. Qasim Muhammed Hadi, said fighters descended from the mountains and entered the city unopposed in late May. Hadi said he alerted local security forces, but neither the army nor police responded.

The Abyan provincial governor also requested help, but found that security commanders had all fled the city, Hadi said.

"Credible local citizens confirmed to me recently that they had seen foreigners with Al Qaeda militants including men of Saudi, Somali and Sudanese nationalities," said Hadi, who has fled to the city of Aden. He said more fighters were coming, and he feared that the city was becoming a haven for Islamic militants.

An estimated 30,000 people had fled to Aden and nearby Lahj province, he said.

Government units launched airstrikes Wednesday and were shelling the city. Officials said they had killed 30 insurgent fighters Tuesday.

Just days ago, U.S. officials and Western analysts had dismissed the idea that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had seized any territory.

A U.S. official briefed on the latest intelligence reports said Wednesday that the militant group had not taken over Abyan province, but "there is a pretty big AQAP presence in Zinjibar."

"AQAP-affiliated folks have had some success against the Yemeni security forces in that city, and it's an important city," the official said. "But they don't really have the capability to take and hold areas for any length of time."

The self-described Al Qaeda member, reached by telephone, said seizing Zinjibar was the first step in establishing an Islamic state.

"Youths from almost all parts of Yemen are arriving in Abyan to join in the fight," said the man, who identified himself as Abed Rabbo Abed. They call themselves Ansar al Sharia, or Supporters of Islamic Law, he said.

The militants claim to control a mountain town north of Zinjibar, and a small stretch of coastal highway leading into the city. "Ansar al Sharia has set up checkpoints through the entire coastal road," Abed said.

"When I arrived there, I saw all government departments controlled by Ansar al Sharia. They manage all the things there," he said. The Yemeni military forces appeared demoralized, he said: "They cannot protect even themselves. They are panicked."

Abed claimed that in one raid, Ansar al Sharia stormed a military base on Abyan province's western border with Aden, where the fighters stole heavy weapons and equipment, including tanks.

It was unclear whether Saleh withdrew elite British and American-trained counter-terrorism units from the area just before Zinjibar fell because he needed the troops to guard Sana or whether, as some observers argue, he was trying to stoke Western fears by letting Islamic militants grab territory....

Oh, that wouldn't backfire...

Party's over in Zinjibar. "Al Qaeda group tightens grip on Yemen coastal town," by Samia Nakhoul and Mohamed Sudam for Reuters, May 29 (thanks to JCB):

SANAA (Reuters) – An al Qaeda group tightened its grip on a Yemeni coastal town while in the capital Sanaa a truce was holding on Sunday between President Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces and armed rebels, hours after it was agreed.

Armed men believed to be from al Qaeda appeared to have full control of the coastal city of Zinjibar in the flashpoint province of Abyan.

"About 300 Islamic militants and al Qaeda men came into Zinjibar and took over everything on Friday," a resident said. The army had withdrawn from Zinjibar after a battle with militants in March, but later regained control.

Opposition groups have accused Saleh of using the al Qaeda threat to win aid from regional powers seeking his government's help in battling the militants. The groups have said they could do a better job of containing al Qaeda than the president....

But would they really close the "bus station?"

That is the purpose of jihad in all its forms: the imposition of Islamic rule. When one peels back the layers of excuses du jour and claims of "underlying causes," that is what remains. "Al Qaeda Declares Southern Yemeni Province An 'Islamic Emirate'," by Grace Wyler for Business Insider, March 31 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has declared Yemen's Abyan province an "Islamic Emirate" and banned women from going outside, according to Eurasia Review and accounts from Yemeni journalists.

AQAP, which has established full control over the southern province, made an online statement Wednesday declaring Abyan an Islamic Emirate governed by Shariah.

First on the chopping block? Women's rights:

The statement said women in the province should not go out except under necessary circumstances, "and she who urgently needs to go out, should be with one of her male relatives, and should have ID with her."

AQAP's announcement comes just a few days after jihadists looted an ammunition factory in Ja'ar, a city in Abyan province, killing 150 people in an apparently accidental explosion. Al Qaeda militants have also taken control of local communications facilities in the province.

Secular, pro-democracy forces nowhere in evidence, but no doubt -- if we are to believe the learned analysts -- certain to triumph. "Islamists Clash With Security Forces In South Yemen," from AGI, March 27 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

(AGI) Sanaa - There have been clashes between Islamist groups and Yemeni security forces attempting to regain control of buildings occupied by militias in Jaar, in the southern province of Abyan. According to witnesses, a soldier was killed during an attack. Yesterday, key buildings in the city were attacked and occupied by a coalition of Islamist groups. Faced with weeks of protests Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh has reiterated in an interview with Al-Aribya that he does not intend to "remain attached to power", and launched an appeal to avoid the country falling into a civil war.

"These revolutions are the will of the people." He seems confident that if the will of the people in Libya and elsewhere does indeed find expression, that what will result will not be pluralistic democracies guaranteeing the rights of their people and friendly toward the West, but Islamic states bristling with hatred for the Great Satan.

Doesn't he know that these are secular, pro-democracy uprisings? Hassan Nasrallah must be some kind of Islamophobe.

"Hezbollah calls on Arab rebels to be patient for regime change," from DPA, March 19:

Beirut - Hezbollah on Saturday called on rebels across the Arab world who are fighting for regime change to be patient and confident of their eventual victory.

'God will grant you victory if you persist in your jihad,' said Hezbollah secretary general Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah during a rally in Beirut's southern suburbs. He referred to the popular uprisings in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya.

'These revolutions are the will of the people. They express awareness, enthusiasm and willingness to sacrifice. This should not be forgotten by the regimes that are facing these people,' Nasrallah said....

"Uprisings have been seen as secular and inspired by democratic goals." Whether that will continue is an open question. "Powerful Cleric Joins Protest to Urge Islamic Rule in Yemen," by Laura Kasinof in the New York Times, March 1:

SANA, Yemen — As thousands of demonstrators for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets on Tuesday, a cleric who is a former mentor of Osama bin Laden joined them to call for the replacement of the government with an Islamic state.

The cleric, Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani, has been on the United States Treasury Department’s list of “specially designated global terrorists” since 2004, suspected of fund-raising for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. His call was a marked contrast to the message of the rebellions that brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and now threaten the rulers of Libya, Bahrain, Oman and, to this point, Yemen, where uprisings have been seen as secular and inspired by democratic goals.

In the past, he has publicly opposed terrorism, if not jihad, or holy war, and his word as a spiritual leader carries considerable political and moral weight in Yemen....

Mr. Zindani spoke on an open-air stage before several thousand anti-government protesters, guarded by his own private security force of 10 men carrying AK-47’s and shielded from the scorching sun by two umbrellas wielded by aides. He called for Mr. Saleh to step down and described the fervor for reform as an opportunity. “An Islamic state is coming,” he said, drawing cries of “God is great” from some in the crowd.

He said Mr. Saleh “came to power by force, and stayed in power by force, and the only way to get rid of him is through the force of the people.”

For many years, he maintained ties with Mr. Saleh even though he was a founder of the Islamic opposition Islah Party....

Samir Ali, a 35-year-old mobile phone company worker, said that Tuesday was his first day joining the pro-government side. “Yes, we have corruption. Yes, there is oppression. But the government is trying to fix these things,” he said.

He also referred to a meeting on Monday between Mr. Saleh and Yemeni religious scholars. “People like me, independents, we know that the opposition has a point, “ Mr. Ali said. “But when the religious scholars say something, then we follow.”...

Saleh demonstrates his gratitude for all the U.S. taxpayer money that the learned analysts in the State Department have deemed it prudent to shower upon Yemen.

"Yemeni president says US and Israel behind unrest," by Ahmed Al-Haj for the Associated Press, March 1 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Yemen's embattled U.S.-backed president accused Washington on Tuesday of instigating protests against his regime, as hundreds of thousands marched in cities across Yemen in the largest rallies yet seeking the longtime ruler's ouster.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's allegations, unprecedented in their harshness, signaled a growing rift with the United States that could hurt a joint campaign against the al-Qaida terror network in Yemen.

Saleh's comments Tuesday, including charges that the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Sanaa is giving instructions to the protesters, appeared to be part of an attempt to silence the calls for his resignation. Saleh has come under mounting pressure to step down since anti-government protests erupted a month ago....

Now wait a minute. "Saleh's comments Tuesday, including charges that the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Sanaa is giving instructions to the protesters, appeared to be part of an attempt to silence the calls for his resignation"? So being anti-American is a popular stand among the secular, pro-democracy protesters in Yemen? Why, it's...inexplicable!

Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, considered by the U.S. to be linked to the al-Qaida terror network, led noon prayers and warned the government not to use force against demonstrators. " We hail the peaceful revolution of the youths and their legitimate demands and rights," he said. "Go on until you achieve your demands."

Yaseen Said Nouman, leader of the Socialist Party, which ruled south Yemen before merging with the north in 1990, also joined the rally. The Socialist party is the biggest opposition party in the south....

"I am going to reveal a secret," [Saleh] said. "There is an operations room in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilizing the Arab world. The operations room is in Tel Aviv and run by the White House," he said.

He said opposition figures meet regularly with the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa to coordinate efforts.

"Regrettably those (opposition figures) are sitting day and night with the American ambassador where they hand him reports and he gives them instructions," Saleh alleged.

"The Americans also talk with the government officials about this (the protests), but they tell them `allow these people to demonstrate in the streets'," Saleh said. "We say that this is a Zionist agenda."

The wave of political unrest sweeping across the Arab world is a "conspiracy that serves Israel and the Zionists," he added.

Saleh accused President Barack Obama of meddling in the affairs of Arab countries. "Why is he interfering? Is he the president of the United States or the president of the Arab world?" Saleh said....

Hmmm. May I have some more time on that one?

Laugh if you will, but there will be more and more of this in the West as the Muslim presence increases. The existence of jinn (genies) is taken for granted in the Qur'an, so they are an integral part of the worldview that is advancing steadily Westward. In The Caliph's House, Tahir Shah's marvelously entertaining account of his adventures moving his family to Morocco and buying and refurbishing a home in Casablanca, Shah is repeatedly amazed by the belief of the locals (including Westernized Moroccans whom he believes to be sophisticated) in the existence of jinn, the mischievous spirit beings who interfere in human affairs. And their invariable reply to his astonished inquiries is, "It's in the Qur'an."

"Genies blamed for girl's disappearance: After a visit to Koran reciters, she had to be carried out as she appeared to be in a trance," from Emirates 24/7, February 10 (thanks to Tanstaafl):

A Yemeni girl has been missing for nearly a month in Saudi Arabia and her family believe she could have been snatched by jinn (genies), a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The 23-year-old girl stepped out of her house in a mountainous village near the western town of Taif and never returned, prompting a massive police search campaign, Sabq Arabic language daily said.

"Some people told police they saw her walking on a hill not far from her house then vanished again," the paper said.

"Her brothers and some residents in the village said she sometimes appears at night and then suddenly disappears...they told police that they believe she has been haunted and taken by jinn."

The paper quoted her brother, Ahmed Ali, as saying his sister ran away from home a year ago but was found at another house on the same day. He said his sister had been nervous and moody but had no problems with the family just before she vanished again.

"On that day, she was with my other sisters washing in the second floor of the house...she then went down to the ground floor...my sisters waited for her but she never came back," he said.

"Before she vanished, we used to take her to some Koran reciters and scholars...she used to walk into their places but we had to carry her on our way out as she appeared to be in a trance...a red fluid sometimes oozed out of her ears and noses...it was not blood and it had a strange smell...some scholars told us that she is haunted and others said she is under jinn guardianship."

"''There were some statements that were inflammatory, and were considered just talk, but now we realize that talk can be taken seriously and acted upon in a violent radical way,' said Mr. Al-Awlaki, who at 30 is held up as a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West." -- Laurie Goodstein, "A Nation Challenged: The American Muslims; Influential American Muslims Temper Their Tone," New York Times, October 19, 2001

"Yemen cleric criticizes Yemen for helping US," from The Associated Press, February 13 (thanks to Block Ness):

A U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric with links to al-Qaida slammed the Yemeni government for cooperating with the U.S. in strikes on locals in an audio message posted on Sunday.

According to the translation by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group which monitors radical websites, Ayman al-Awlaki said it was a crime that the Yemeni government was helping the U.S. to bomb the people of Yemen....

Al-Awlaki, thought to be hiding in Yemen, is believed to have inspired and even plotted or helped coordinate some of the recent attacks on the U.S. That includes the failed Christmas Day 2009 bombing of an airliner heading for Detroit, Michigan, and the also unsuccessful plot to send mail bombs on planes from Yemen to the United States in October....

He says it's in retaliation for an earlier Shi'ite attack, which is par for the course: jihadis today always frame their attacks as defensive. This is most likely because in the absence of a caliph, there is no Sunni authority authorized to declare offensive jihad.

Note also that Iran's Ahlul Bayt News Agency, which is run exclusively by Muslims, has no problem translating jihad as "holy war." Apparently the "jihad does not mean holy war" memos that circulate among Islamic spokesmen in America don't make their way to Tehran.

"Yemen al-Qaeda Terrorist commander declares war against Shiite Muslims," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, January 29:

Leader of al-Qaeda militants in Yemen declared "Jihad" against the Houthi-led northern Shiite fighters, in an audio message posted on the internet by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Friday.

Yemen al-Qaeda Terrorist commander declares war against Shiite Muslims(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Leader of al-Qaeda militants in Yemen declared "Jihad" against the Houthi-led northern Shiite fighters, in an audio message posted on the internet by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Friday.

"To our Wahhabi fellows in northern Yemeni provinces of Saada, Al- Jouf and Amran, we (AQAP) announced jihad (holy war) against Houthi Shiites" Saeed Ali al-Shihri, deputy leader of the Yemen-based AQAP.

"The jihad against northern Shiites has been declared since the implementation of the AQAP's twin killed car bombing attacks against innocent convoys of the Shiite followers in northern provinces of Al-Jouf and Saada on Nov. 24 and Nov. 26 of the last year," he said.

In the 17-minute audiotape, the Saudi fugitive al-Shihri justified his group's war against the Shiite fighters by claiming that the sectarian-motivated Houthis attacked and displaced many Wahhabi militants in the north.

Last December, the Wahhabi-devoted AQAP claimed responsibility for twin suicide car bombings against convoys of the Shiite fighters' followers in northern provinces of Al-Jouf and Saada on Nov. 24 and Nov. 26, 2010, which left over than 90 Shiite followers martyred, including the group's Shiite spiritual leader Bader al-Deen al- Houthi....

Misunderstanding Islam is a global enterprise. Yet no one ever seems to ask Islamic spokesmen in the West why, if what they're saying is true, so many Muslims seem to get Islam so drastically wrong. "Pakistan al Qaeda Aids Yemen Plots," by Adam Entous and Margaret Coker in the Wall Street Journal, November 5 (thanks to Maxwell):

Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders are believed to be providing strategic and philosophical guidance from Pakistan to Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the group Washington believes was behind last week's attempt to ship bombs in packages to the U.S.

Increased communication and collaboration between al Qaeda militants in Yemen and the group's central leadership have fueled alarm about terrorist plots which U.S. and European officials first detected months ago and which they believe remain active despite efforts to thwart them....

For jihad, of course. "Yemen bomb suspect, Al Qaeda expert Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri, blew up his own brother," by Helen Kennedy for the New York Daily News, November 1 (thanks to Block Ness):

The Al Qaeda bombmaker thought to be behind the Yemen cargo bombs is so ruthless that he once slipped explosives inside his own brother's body to kill a Saudi prince. His brother managed to get face to face with the prince before a text message triggered the device, but he killed only himself. The August 2009 plot was the latest failed attempt by a Saudi bombmaker so skilled, daring and prolific that success is probably just a matter of time.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, 28, known by his alias Abu Saleh, also is suspected of sewing explosives into the crotch of the briefs that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, wore onto a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day 2009....

Like the cargo bombs and the anti-prince device, the underwear bomb sailed past security, and 290 people would have died had Abdulmutallab not bungled the detonation....

Asiri and his younger brother, Abdullah, went to Yemen three years ago to join the increasingly dangerous Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Last year, he gave Abdullah a device containing about 3 ounces of PETN powder explosives to conceal inside his rear. The detonator was a chemical fuse that would elude metal detectors.

Abdullah posed as a penitent militant seeking to surrender in person to Prince Muhammed Bin Naif, the Saudi security minister who tries to reform terrorists....

In the featured piece at FrontPage this morning, I discuss the Yemen/Chicago UPS jihad plot:

It was yet another jihad plot against targets in the United States: the bombs, sent from Yemen via UPS, were powerful enough to bring down a cargo airplane. They were addressed to a synagogue in Chicago. Yemeni authorities arrested a twenty-two-year-old female computer engineering student, Hanan al-Samawi, whose telephone number appeared on one of the UPS forms, and then released her without charge after other students protested her arrest. Further investigations centered on language schools in Yemen, but as of Sunday evening there were no further arrests. That's essentially all we know so far, but the plot in itself reveals a great deal about the nature of the jihad we're facing.

First, the target: Rabbi Michael R. Zedek of Emanuel Congregation in Chicago said that he had been told that four bombs had been sent to synagogues in Chicago. Zedek had the impression that his Emanuel Congregation was not the jihadists' specific target, but rather that they had meant to bomb Congregation Or Chadash, a gay-and-lesbian oriented synagogue sharing an address with Emanuel.

Rabbi Larry Edwards of Congregation Or Chadash was mystified as to how his synagogue ended up being targeted by Islamic jihadists in Yemen and, apparently, Egypt: someone there recently visited Emanuel Congregation's website 83 times in a single day. "We're rather puzzled," Edwards said, "at how a little congregation like ours would get on the radar as a target for somebody. I'm hoping for more information." Noting the numerous and suspicious website visits from Egypt, Zedek said: "I think we're interesting, but not that interesting."

Ah, but they are that interesting to Islamic jihadists. It is important in this connection to recall that the primary target in the November 2008 jihad attacks in Mumbai, in which jihadists murdered 173 people, the primary target was not Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel or the Cama Hospital, where some of the attacks occurred. Rather, it was Nariman House, a small Jewish center in Mumbai. Journalist Somendra Sharma of India's DNA (Daily News & Analysis) reported in January 2009 that "the terrorists themselves were in no doubt that Nariman House was the prime focus." Jihad terrorist Mohammed Amir Iman Ajmal (a.k.a. Kasab), noted Sharma, "reportedly told the police they wanted to sent a message to Jews across the world by attacking the synagogue."

The Mumbai jihad plotters spent most of their planning time making sure that the murders at Nariman House would go off without a hitch. "The Nariman House operation has to be a success," said Ajmal. Sharma added that according to Ajmal's statements, "as far as Nariman House was concerned, there should not be even a minimal glitch in finding it and capturing it." Another jihadist involved in this attack explained that he had been warned by operatives of the Pakistani jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous) "that Nariman House was their most secret operation and must not be compromised at any cost."

Apparently this is a new strategy: Islamic jihadists have decided to terrorize Jews in particular, in accord with the Qur'an's denunciation of Jews as "strongest among men in enmity to the believers" (5:82). The Muslim holy book contains a great deal of material that forms the foundation for a hatred of Jews that has persisted throughout Islamic history. It is virulent and hard to eradicate. The Qur'an portrays the Jews as the craftiest, most persistent, and most implacable enemies of the Muslims — and there is no Islamic authority that has moved to mitigate the most destructive interpretations of all this. The Qur'anic material on the Jews remains the prism through which far too many Muslims see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict–and Jews in general–to this day....

There is more.