In response to the tragic deaths of soldiers this week, the new elected president vows to crush all terrorists, says Nasser Arrabyee Al-Qaeda has intensified its terrorist attacks as Yemen started to gradually restore its stability. In more than three provinces in the south and east of the country, Al-Qaeda has been implementing suicide bombings against military and security forces. Hundreds of soldiers were killed, injured and detained by Al-Qaeda even as the new elected president vowed to crush terrorism after he took power on 25 February. Last Sunday, about 200 soldiers were killed and 150 others injured when Al-Qaeda operatives attacked camps and positions in Dawfas area, near Zinjubar, the capital of Abyan, in the bloodiest operation the army has ever seen before. "Al-Qaeda is very afraid that Yemen will get back stability. This is why it does all these things," said Said Obaid, an expert on Al-Qaeda affairs. Al-Qaeda is forcing detained soldiers to train its fighters on modern tanks and artillery and other heavy weapons that it looted after attacking troops positions on Sunday in south Yemen, local sources told Al-Ahram Weekly. About 60 soldiers were detained and taken to the Taliban-style Al-Qaeda-declared Islamic emirate of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan on Sunday morning. About 20 from Al-Qaeda fighters were killed and dozens were injured, according to sources in Jaar. "The detained soldiers from Dawfas battles were seen on Monday in Jaar training Al-Qaeda fighters on the looted tanks and artilleries," said local sources. Although American and Yemeni fighter jets tried to bomb and destroy the looted heavy weapons on Sunday, they failed to destroy everything, said the sources. The newly elected president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi vowed to crush all hideouts of the terrorists in Abyan and other places. "The confrontation would continue with all force until the last terrorist is killed," said President Hadi in a meeting he held Monday with American, British, and Saudi officials and diplomats. The country's military supreme committee held also a meeting with the 10 ambassadors who helped Yemenis to get out of their political crisis. They discussed the serious confrontations with Al-Qaeda during the past year. The ambassadors include the five permanent members of the Security Council, and the five ambassadors of the Gulf countries, except Qatar, in addition to the chief of the European Union mission. The families of the dead and injured soldiers demanded in a statement sent to media on Monday that new elected President Hadi should strike with an iron fist on those who were responsible for the massacre of Dawfas. The families demanded that the minister of defence and minister of interior should resign and an investigation committee should be formed. Meanwhile, six Al-Qaeda suspects with a car bomb were arrested early Tuesday morning in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to security authorities. Earlier the week, another car bomb was discovered and confiscated. The authorities were looking for three car bombs that were made in Arhab area, about 30km north of the capital, where Al-Qaeda has traditionally been active. Arhab is the village of the extremist cleric Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani, who is accused by US and UN of being a global terrorist. In Al-Mukalla in the far east of Yemen, Al-Qaeda threatened in posters found in the mosques on Tuesday that it would assassinate every single military and security person if they do not declare their repentance. In the posters Al-Qaeda wrote a telephone number for those who want to declare their repentance to save their lives. The number is called "repentance number". Last Wednesday Al-Qaeda threatened to attack places outside the battle field if the government troops did not withdraw from Zinjubar within 10 days. "We, Ansar Sharia in the state of Abyan, would give the government an ultimatum of 1o days for withdrawing all the troops from Zinjubar, and compensate the displaced persons," said Abu Hamza Jalal Beledi, Emir Ansar Sharia in the state of Abyan, in a statement sent through SMS by an assistant of his who called himself Abu Al-Walid. "If the troops are not withdrawn, we would attack outside the battle field, and we might have to implement the plan of flooding the river," said the top leader of Al-Qaeda in Zinjubar in the SMS which was sent to the Weekly correspondent. Al-Qaeda's threat came only two days after the command of the troop units around Zinjubar gave an ultimatum of one week to Al-Qaeda operatives to leave the city of Zinjubar; otherwise the troops will storm the city. The threats by Al-Qaeda to strike outside the battlefield came also one day after security authorities said they had intelligence that three car bombs are somewhere ready to implement suicide attacks against Yemeni government and Western interests in Yemen. The security authorities are searching for the three car bombs everywhere, the security sources said.
