Al-Qaeda and tribesmen threaten to retaliate for the US drone attacks in Yemen as US ally Saleh clings on, reports Nasser Arrabyee in Sanaa Yemen's nine-month long political crisis remains unsolved despite, or rather because of US activities here. The UN Security Council is expected this week to issue a resolution binding the conflicting parties to stop hostilities and President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power according to Saudi-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-backed deal. President Saleh, however, insists that power must be transferred only through elections in which neither he nor his immediate family will participate. He has also said that the army will take the final decision. Al-Qaeda and tribesmen vowed to implement painful strikes against the Yemeni and American forces in retaliation for recent airstrikes which have killed their leaders as well as the prominent dissident figure Anwar Al-Awlaki. "We will retaliate, for sure, for Anwar Al-Awlaki and his son and the other Mujahideen who were killed by American planes in full cooperation with the Yemeni government," said a tribal leader from Al-Awlaki's tribe in a phone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. The tribal leader, who spoke from Shabwa, asked not to be named because some other tribal leaders disagree with him on declaring their plans, he said. "If they killed Anwar, I would assure them there would be thousand of Anwars, and if they kill Fahd Al-Qusu, there will be a thousand more Fahds," said the tribal leader who is at least ideologically close to Al-Qaeda operatives. "There will be retaliatory operations inside the United States," he threatened. The tribal leader, who is from the same tribe and same village as Al-Awlaki, said that 86 people from Al-Awalik tribe were killed by US drone attacks since the first drone attack 17 December 2009 on Majalah to the last attack of 15 October 15th 2011 on Azzan. Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was accused of orchestrating three terrorist attacks on the US, was killed on 30 September along with three others in a US drone attack in the eastern province of Al-Jawf. Al-Qaeda confirmed his death. His oldest son, Abdel-Rahman, 16, was killed in an airstrike the same day in Azzan. At dawn eight Yemenis accuse of being Al-Qaeda operatives, including two leaders, were killed in an airstrike on the town of Azzan in Shabwa province, a remote town which was declared earlier this year as a Taliban-style Islamic Emirate after it was overrun by Al-Qaeda militants. The leaders were identified as Abu Abdel-Rehman Al-Saidi, and Ibrahim Al-Banaa. Al Banaa is an Egyptian who has been fighting with Al-Qaeda since the late 1990s. He is wanted by Yemeni, Saudi and Egyptian authorities. The airstrike was implemented on the group who were trying to bomb a gas pipeline which extends from Mareb province to Belhaf area in Shabwah. The local sources said Al-Qaeda operatives bombed part of the gas pipe line close to the control area number 9. Meanwhile, kidnappers of three French citizens abducted in May threatened to kill the three hostages if their demands are not met in five days. "I was told by the kidnappers of their ultimatum of five days only," a source close to the kidnappers told the Weekly. The demands of the kidnappers are either money or the release of detainees in the Yemeni government's jails. The Yemenis to be released were described by the kidnappers as "brothers who were doing Jihad when they were arrested". On 12 September, the kidnappers posted a video on a Yemeni website showing the three hostages (two women and man), one of whom complained that the French government had done little to win their release. On the ground, dozens of Yemenis were killed and injured in bloody demonstrations after President Saleh's ambiguous announcement. Observers view what's happening in Yemen now as a war between two factions within the regime itself and not a "revolution" within the so-called Arab Spring. One faction, led by rebel military and tribal leaders, is obviously using the peaceful protesters who struggle for change and better future, to defeat the other faction. The second faction, led by President Saleh, sticks to constitutional legitimacy based on elections recognised by the opposition and the international community, though with reservations. "It's a war between two powerful teams within the regime, not a revolution for change that we need," said politics professor at Sanaa University Najib Ghallab. The rebel faction seems to betting on more bloodshed in violent demonstrations to exercise more external and internal pressure on Saleh and his team. "If they bet on more bloodshed to beat us, we bet on peace and democracy to beat them," said Abdel-Janadi, deputy minister of information and official spokesman of the government.
