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Hugh Fitzgerald: The Saudi-UAE Coalition Has Cut Deals with Al-Qaeda in Yemen (Part One)

Oct 12, 2018 3:40 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

Amid all over the furor over the possible murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi regime thugs, it is useful to remember that in Yemen, the Saudi-UAE forces that have been fighting against the Shi’a Houthis, backed by Iran, are naturally supported by the Americans. Iran is our declared mortal enemy, Saudi Arabia — we keep telling ourselves — is our staunch ally. We supply both weaponry and logistical support to the Saudi and Emirati forces in Yemen. But there is another actor in Yemen — Al-Qaeda — and here the tale gets murkier.

The Saudis and Emiratis have allowed us to believe that they have been fighting not just the Houthis, but the forces of Al-Qaeda. They have announced that they have “taken” from Al Qaeda this or that town in Yemen. But it turns out that the UAE and Saudi forces have not been fighting Al-Qaeda in Yemen at all, but rather, bribing it to leave key cities and towns. They have paid Al-Qaeda commanders directly, in some cases even letting its fighters take with them their weapons, equipment, the cash which they have locally looted, as well as large sums, too, supplied by the Saudis or Emiratis to get them to leave without a fight.

Furthermore, hundreds of Al-Qaeda fighters have been recruited to join the Saudi-Emirati coalition. This leaves the Americans in the position of supporting Arab allies who are not fighting, but actually helping, Al Qaeda.

Here’s a recent account:

A military coalition battling Houthi rebels secured secret deals with al-Qaeda in Yemen and recruited hundreds of the group’s fighters, a news report said on Monday [August 6]

For more than two years, a Saudi-led alliance – backed by US logistical and weapons support – claimed it crushed al-Qaeda’s ability to carry out attacks from Yemen.

However, an investigation by The Associated Press found the coalition has been paying some al-Qaeda commanders to leave key cities and towns while letting others retreat with weapons, equipment, and wads of looted cash.

Hundreds of al-Qaeda members were recruited to join the coalition as soldiers, the report said.

Key figures in the deal-making said the United States was aware of the arrangements and held off on drone attacks against the armed group, which was created by Osama bin Laden in 1988.

The deals uncovered by the AP investigation reflect the contradictory interests of the two wars being waged simultaneously in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

In one conflict, the US is working with its Arab allies – particularly the UAE – with the aim of eliminating al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). But the larger mission is to win the civil war against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

And in that fight, al-Qaeda fighters are effectively on the same side as the Saudi-led coalition and, by extension, the US….

The Pentagon recently vigorously denied any complicity with al-Qaeda fighters.

“Since the beginning of 2017, we have conducted more than 140 strikes to remove key AQAP leaders and disrupt its ability to use ungoverned spaces to recruit, train and plan operations against the US and our partners across the region,” Navy Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, wrote in an email….

In February, Emirati troops and their Yemeni government fighter allies declared the recapture of al-Said, a district of villages running through the mountainous province of Shabwa – an area al-Qaeda had largely dominated for nearly three years.

It was painted as a crowning victory in a months-long offensive known as Operation Swift Sword.

But weeks before those forces’ entry, a string of pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns and loaded with masked al-Qaeda fighters drove out of al-Said unmolested, according to a tribal mediator involved in the deal for their withdrawal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the coalition promised al-Qaeda members it would pay [each of] them up to 100,000 Saudi riyals ($26,000) to leave, according to Awad al-Dahboul, the province’s security chief.

His account was confirmed by the mediator and two Yemeni government officials.

Under the accord, thousands of local tribal fighters were to be enlisted in the UAE-funded Shabwa Elite Force militia. For every 1,000 fighters, 50 to 70 would be al-Qaeda members, the mediator and two officials said.

Not only did the Emirates allow the Al-Qaeda troops to leave the district of al-Said with all their weapons, but promised each fighter up to $26,000 to leave. That, in Yemeni terms, is a gigantic sum.

For many Yemenis, al-Qaeda is simply another faction on the ground – a very effective one, well-armed and battle-hardened.

Its members are not shadowy strangers. Over the years, AQAP has woven itself into society by building ties with tribes, buying loyalties, and marrying into major families.

Power players often see it as a useful tool.

Hadi’s predecessor as Yemen’s president, long-ruling strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, set the model. He took billions in US aid to combat al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks, even as he recruited its fighters to battle his rivals.

The branch is following guidance from global al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to focus on fighting Houthi rebels, another top AQAP member said.

The impact of the intertwining of al-Qaeda fighters with the coalition campaign is clearest in Taiz, Yemen’s largest city and centre of one of the war’s longest-running battles.

In 2015, Houthis laid siege to the city, occupying surrounding mountain ranges, sealing the entrances, and shelling it mercilessly.

Taiz residents rose up to fight back, and coalition cash and weapons poured in – as did al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters, all aimed at the same enemy.

One liberal activist took up arms alongside other men from his neighborhood to defend the city, and they found themselves fighting side-by-side with al-Qaeda members.

“There is no filtering in the war. We are all together,” said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity….

What a tangled web they weave, those involved in the violence in Yemen. There have been so many shifting alliances, and so many outsiders, taking part in Yemen’s civil wars. From 1962 to 1970, there was the North Yemen Civil War, fought between the supporters of the Yemen Arab Republic, known as the “republicans,” and those who supported the Mutawakkilite Kingdom in North Yemen, known as the “royalists.” Nasser supported the republicans with 70,000 Egyptian troops, and the Saudis, with help from Jordan, took the side of the royalists. At the time, Saudi Arabia supported the Zaidis, or Houthis, even though they were Shi’a, because the republican idea was recognized as more of a threat to the Saudi monarchy. Some believe that Nasser’s military involvement in Yemen contributed to the poor performance of his army and air force during the Six-Day War, by depriving them of his best officers.

Fast forward to today. After 30 years of misrule,  Ali Abdullah Saleh, the ruler of Yemen for 30 years who, in that time, managed to amass a fortune of between 32 and 64 billion dollars, was eventually deposed as president by Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Having made an alliance with the Houthis, the forces loyal to Saleh fought on. The Houthi forces managed to seize San’a, the Yemeni capital, and it looked as if they might take over Yemen. But the Saudis entered with money and weaponry, and with sustained — and indiscriminate — bombing campaigns from the air. Eventually, Ali Saleh decided it would be prudent to join those he thought would win, the side backed by the powerful Saudis, and he switched sides, ending his alliance with the Houthis. For that, a Houthi sniper killed him.

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Filed Under: Al-Qaeda, Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, Saudi Arabia, Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad, United Arab Emirates, Yemen Tagged With: Houthis


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Comments

  1. ElderlyZionist says

    Oct 12, 2018 at 6:19 pm

    As long as we keep our own people out of harm’s way, I am satisfied to let our several frenemies, enemies and mortal enemies fight out their war in Yemen any way they please. We clearly have no friends there.

    • J D S says

      Oct 13, 2018 at 9:55 pm

      Yes…A tangled web of Muslims and Muslim governments from way back then…to the present day…sometimes name change…sometimes regime change…sometimes No change…but the outcome in the Muslim world will NEVER change…wars, fighting. Murdering, enslaving, raping of women and children and raping the land.
      It will never end till Christ returns and fills the LAKE OF FIRE with those who have rejected Him.

  2. mortimer says

    Oct 12, 2018 at 6:19 pm

    So much for the disapproval of Soddy Barbaria of the theology and ideology of the TERRORISTS.

    – Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani (former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca), has said that the Islamic State (ISIS) group follows the same brand of Islam as officially espoused by Saudi Arabia.

    “We follow the same thought [as ISIS] but apply it in a refined way,” he said. “They draw their ideas from what is written in our own books, from our own principles.”

    The cleric said that “we do not criticise the thought on which it (ISIS) is based”.

  3. christianblood says

    Oct 12, 2018 at 6:57 pm

    For the past three years Saudis and UAE along with the US, UK and France have been teaming up with Al-qaeda and ISIS in Yemen to exterminate the Shiite Houthi minority
    in there Yemen! Even with all the support from the US, UK, France, Al-Qaeda and ISIS the Saudis and its “Muslim Nato” allies cannot defeat a few thousand ragtag Shiite militia known as the Houthis!

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 12, 2018 at 8:54 pm

      Yes, we all know that you love Shia Jihadists, despite their being no better than their Sunni counterparts.

      • christianblood says

        Oct 13, 2018 at 8:36 am

        gravenimage

        Let us see the statistics Graven:

        Every single islamic terrorist attack around the globe, including against the Shiites is perpetrated by Sunni jihadists. That is the fact, Graven!

        My point is not to say that Shiites are pacifistic saints, they do fight back and hard when attacked by Sunnis and their allies and they should because it is an existential threat for them, but Shiites don’t massacre, behead, sex-slave and bomb Christians and other religious minorities that are praying in churches and temples as Sunnis do on daily basis and all around the globe!

        • gravenimage says

          Oct 13, 2018 at 10:23 pm

          Actually, the Shia *do* wage violent Jihad, particularly against the Jews. Hizb’allah is particularly savage. christianblood seems to be fine with that, though.

          The Houthi’s own slogan is “Damn the Jews”, and there have been reports of the Houthis attacking Jews in Yemen.

          And there is plenty of oppression against Christians and other Infidels in Shia dominated lands–but christianblood has said that any Christian persecuted in Iran must be “an American spy”.

          Here’s what a Shi’ite cleric in Iraq had to say:

          “Shia cleric: Iraq Christians ‘infidels who must convert or be killed’”

          https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170517-shia-cleric-iraq-christians-infidels-who-must-convert-or-be-killed/

          Are all of the Christians in Iraq “American spies”, as well?

          Sunni Muslims have indeed wrecked more violence against Infidels than have Shia–this is largely because there are a lot more of them.

        • christianblood says

          Oct 14, 2018 at 8:02 am

          gravenimage

          Graven, the problem is that you follow US propaganda line against Iran
          and Hezbollah which has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism and as long as you blindly follow that logic you won’t see the truth! You are an intelligent person Graven, please do your own personal research and you will understand the situation much, much better!

        • jule says

          Oct 14, 2018 at 9:30 pm

          Hezbollah is even more bad news and Iran, though it keeps a low profile. is even worse. Our Media never covers but its out there on line and they are now in cahoots with Turkey, Qatar, all Muslim Bros, PA, Fatah (Russia) to destroy as much as they can, including Saudi and Israel. Don’t be fooled. If not contained, the world will explode. Not saying Saudi is not terrorist but Turkey/Qatar/MB all over and in Egypt are worse.

        • StellaSaidSo says

          Oct 14, 2018 at 8:11 am

          @ christianblood

          People who know everything already don’t need to do research, christianblood!

        • gravenimage says

          Oct 14, 2018 at 10:06 pm

          Of course I have done research here–I often cite it.

          Hizb’allah spokesmen *themselves* admit to attacking Israel–this is not Islamophobic propaganda. Here is just one recent instance:

          “Hezbollah says rocket attack on Israeli-occupied Golan marks ‘new phase'”

          https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-hezbollah/hezbollah-says-rocket-attack-on-israeli-occupied-golan-marks-new-phase-idUSKCN1IF28D

          Surely you are not claiming that Reuters is lying?

          And here is Hizb’allah’s own footage of an attack on Israel from 2015:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeIAiSHY0xM

          Are they lying about themselves? Or could it be that they are actually proud of their Jihad attacks on Israel?

        • gravenimage says

          Oct 14, 2018 at 10:30 pm

          StellaSaidSo, are you *really* saying that Hizb’allah has nothing to do with Jihad?

    • jule says

      Oct 13, 2018 at 4:00 am

      You are almost right but it has been longer ago than that. Saudi kind of gave Yemen to alQaeda, even though they do not trust each other & have butted heads or clashed swords. There is NO good Muslim country and none could ever be our ally. I wish Multinational profit hogs would not work with or in ANY Muslim country..not even Oman or Jordan. I just find it so impossible to understand how USA has not figured it out? Hasn’t ANY one read the Qur’an?

      • gravenimage says

        Oct 13, 2018 at 10:24 pm

        +1

  4. jewdog says

    Oct 12, 2018 at 8:43 pm

    There are no good guys here, just bad and worse. This is what we have after the British and French left: just the rule of the local barbarians. The only real solution is to establish secular rule, but we don’t have the stomach for it.

  5. gravenimage says

    Oct 12, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    Hugh Fitzgerald: The Saudi-UAE Coalition Has Cut Deals with Al-Qaeda in Yemen (Part One)
    ……………….

    Why do so many still believe these Muslim thugs are our allies?

  6. Sassy says

    Oct 12, 2018 at 11:33 pm

    Is it possible the Saudis infiltrated the units beforehand? Let’s draw conclusions as of that point.

    • christianblood says

      Oct 13, 2018 at 8:38 am

      Saudis=ISIS!

  7. TWG says

    Oct 13, 2018 at 9:35 am

    The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

    And don’t blink. The list changes by the second.

  8. Badger says

    Oct 13, 2018 at 1:26 pm

    Does the US really need Saudi any more? They are now net exporters of energy and do not need Saudi oil. There is of course the budding Israeli/Saudi/UAE ‘alliance’ which may or may not be worth pursuing, but they are muslims and any deals they do with Israel or the US will be tenuous at best and certainly won’t last more than ten years. Muhammad said so.

    If the US and Israel were to knock out the Iranian nuclear threat once and for all, then who needs Saudi anyway?

    I don’t know about the UK though. Britain desperately needs the arms billions it get from the kingdom. It is very short of cash for a nation that boasts to have the world’s fifth or sixth biggest economy.

    Time they admitted that immigration is costing them many billions every year instead of lying and kidding the voters that immigration is an economic plus. It has cost the UK tax payer around £150 billion since 1995 and it increases annually.

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