Al-Qaeda is flexing its muscles in Yemen and finding support among the opposition, observes Nasser Arrabyee Yemenis are facing at least three battles at the same time. The battle of ending the 6-month long political crisis, the economic battle, and the extensive military battle with Al-Qaeda which has exploited the unrest and expanded across the country. Al-Qaeda has become the biggest benefactor after the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh left for Saudi Arabia for treatment from injuries sustained in an attack on his Palace's mosque on 3 June 3. With their new name, Shariah Partisans, Al-Qaeda vows to control the whole south of Yemen after it declared at least two southern provinces as Taliban-style Islamic Emirates, including the province of Abyan and its capital Zinjubar where fierce battles renewed Tuesday at the outskirts of this city, which is less than 50 km from Aden. In an exclusive interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, a tribal leader from the south, close to Al-Qaeda leaders, said Al-Qaeda now is determined more than ever before to enter the city of Aden to control southern Yemen's most strategic harbour on the Arabian Sea and Red Sea, where more three billion barrels of oil pass by every day. A total of 40 Al-Qaeda fighters were killed, according military officials, on Tuesday in battles with government troops who tried to end the one-month long blockade by Al-Qaeda fighters on a military camp on the outskirts of Zinjubar and retake a stadium in the same area which was seized by Al-Qaeda after 30 soldiers died inside the May 22 Stadium in Zinjubar, 30 km from Aden, on the highway between Aden and Abyan. The tribal leader, Ali Abdul Salam, known as Mulla Zabara, said Al-Qaeda leaders told him last Sunday that "they are determined to enter Aden very soon" and that they would not accept any more mediation from now on. Mulla Zabara, who is making mediation efforts between Al-Qaeda and the government, failed for the second time in two days to remove dozens of dead and injured soldiers after last week's storming of the stadium by Al-Qaeda fighters. Al-Qaeda attacked the stadium to tighten the blockade on the military camp of 25 Mica, and get closer and closer to Aden. Mulla Zabara is a relative of one of the Al-Qaeda leaders who are now ruling the province of Abyan as an Islamic Emirate. Zabara is from Shabwah province which is also partly declared a Taliban-style Islamic Emirate. The army shelled Al-Qaeda leaders who were supposed to meet Mulla Zabara on Sunday forcing them to hide on the outskirt of Zinjubar. Two days earlier, airplanes bombed Al-Qaeda sites, also undermining efforts of the mediator Mulla Zabara to reach the Stadium to evacuate the dead and injured soldiers. "After this second treacherous attack, Al-Qaeda leader Fahd Al-Qusu, called me saying, "Do not mediate any more , do not believe them, they just want to kill us through you," said Mulla Zabara who is cousin of Al-Qusu. Mulla Zabara said Al-Qaeda told him they would not allow any mediators to come to take dead bodies or injured. "They have already buried about 25 dead soldiers," said Mulla Zabara. He said for humanitarian reason he would continue mediations with Al-Qaeda, but on his own conditions. "I would tell those who ask me to mediate, like the minister of defence, to bring their sons or brothers with me next time," he said. When asked why Al-Qaeda trusts him and why it would trust him in the future, he said, "Al-Qaeda people know me very well. They know I am not paid by the government, they know I want to do the good for the sake of God not for the money or any other thing." "I do not hate Al-Qaeda, why should I," said Zabara who called himself Mulla as a sign of admiration of Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan Mulla Omar. In a previous meeting with Al-Qaeda people earlier last month, Mulla Zabara said he met important leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular like Qasem Al-Raimi, and Saeed Al-Shihri, the Saudi leader, in Zinjubar. "I think ever one is there now," he said. About the blockaded military camp of 25 Mica in Zinjubar, Al-Qaeda said they are ready to let the soldiers go but without any weapons or equipment. The camp came under the siege after Al-Qaeda completely controlled the capital of Abyan, Zinjubar, late last May. Airstrikes and military operations from the besieged camp and other reinforcement units forced more than 50,000 people to be displaced to the neighbouring provinces of Aden and Lahj. "We will keep imposing the siege on them until they surrender or die," Mulla Zabara quoted his cousin Fahd Al-Qusu, one of Al-Qaeda leaders most wanted by the CIA. "We are determined to enter Aden sooner or later." Politically, acting President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi confirmed this week that President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is now recovering in Saudi Arabia, would stay on as president until a new president is elected. In a televised interview he said he has the power to talk with all parties and sign any document to implement the US-backed and Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council deal. He is accepted by all opposition parties, including ex-general Ali Muhsen and the tribal leaders. The commander of the highly qualified and most trained and equipped forces, the Republican Guards, Ahmed Ali, son of Saleh, also declared last week he would do his best to support Hadi's efforts to end the crisis. Ahmed's public declaration was the first ever since the crisis erupted earlier this year. The opposition wants the power to be transferred to Hadi now, but it is not united. To put pressure to transfer power to Hadi immediately, they are urging their young supporters in the streets to demand a transitional council, although they know it is unlikely anyone would recognise such a council. This week, the opposition coalition met to discuss the possibility of forming such a transitional council to appease the young people in the streets. "Yemeni now have only two options: either to reconcile or to go into a destructive civil war," said Dr Abdul Malik Al-Mutawkil, member of the high council of the opposition coalition which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserites (Arab nationalists). "All Yemenis should be represented in the new state," said Al-Mutawakil, who is also secretary general the opposition Popular Forces Federation, a small Shia Islamic party, in the coalition dominated by the Suni Islamist party Islah (brotherhood). The assistant secretary general of the Socialist party, Yahya Abu Asbu, criticised the Americans, Europeans and Saudi Arabia describing them as "enemies of revolutions". "The US, EU, and Saudi Arabia threatened not to recognise the transitional council, but I'm wondering when the great revolutions took permits from their enemies," Abu Asbu told hundreds protesters in the main sit-in square at the gate of Sanaa University. The spokesman of the ruling party, Tarik Al-Shami said, "Any talk about a transitional council is a provocative act, and a desperate, failed attempt to overthrow the constitutional legitimacy." The government is also battling saboteurs and tribal rebels who have exploited the unrest and bombed oil pipelines and electrical pylons making the daily life of the people worse and worse. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Interior published the names and photos of 59 tribesmen loyal to the Islamist party from Arhab district north of the capital wanted for blocking roads and attacking check points and military camps. The ministry allocated $15,000 for any information leading to their arrest. Last week, the ministry published the names and photos of 53 tribesmen from Marib province loyal to the Islamist party wanted for blowing up the main oil pipeline last March which caused a total stoppage of oil production. Earlier this week, the Yemeni army said in a statement that it is confronting Al-Qaeda in Abyan, and Al-Qaeda sympathisers in three other places �ê" Arhab, 40km north of Sanaa, Al-Haima, about 60 km west of the capital, and Taiz about 260 km south of the capital. The statement accused three tribal leaders from these places, leaders of the popular army of the Islamist opposition party Islah, of cooperating with Al-Qaeda.
