Al-Qaeda insurgents in Yemen are as elusive as ever, reports Nasser Arrabyee After four days of besieging the remote southern town of Al-Huta in Shabwah province, where about 100 Al-Qaeda fighters were cornered by American- trained anti-terror forces, Yemeni forces captured only 32 Al-Qaeda suspects after retaking the town early on 24 September. Most of the 20,000 residents of the town had already fled before the all-out offensive in which heavy weapons, fighter jets and helicopters were used. The government said five Al-Qaeda fighters and two soldiers were killed and many others from both sides were injured. The security forces are chasing the remaining Al-Qaeda members in the mountainous area between Shabwah and Hudhrmout in the east of the country. Local residents, however, say that Al-Qaeda fighters escaped westward from Al-Huta and went to Mareb province, one of the strongholds of Al-Qaeda about 250km east of the capital Sanaa. "Al-Qaeda realised at the end that the army would destroy the town, so they withdrew. They knew what they were doing, and that the army was lying when they said they had surrounded the town from all directions," Abu Ahmed told Al-Ahram Weekly from Al-Huta over the phone. "I think they went to Mareb." The opposition abroad who support the separatist movement in the south accuse the government of using Al-Qaeda as a justification to strike at separatists and to divert attention from the southern demands for independence. "The attack on Al-Huta was designed to secure foreign financial assistance under the pretext of fighting terrorism, and to divert the attention of the leaders of the world from discussing the southern political problems," said Ali Salem Al-Baidh, the former president of the south before unity in 1990 who is based in Germany now and calling for independence. While the Yemeni security forces were combing the town of Al-Huta on 24 September, delegations from about 27 countries, including the Gulf states, the European Union, the United States, Japan and other international donors (known as Friends of Yemen) met in New York to assess a previous plan to help Yemen extricate itself from its political, economic and security problems. The Friends of Yemen said in a statement they support the unity, security, and stability of Yemen. The US plans to give Yemen $1.2 billion in military aid to fight Al-Qaeda over the upcoming six years. US military assistance to Yemen for the 2010 increased by $155 million. The Yemeni government accuses separatists of cooperating and coordinating with Al-Qaeda despite their lack of common aims. Observers say the separatist and Al-Qaeda are only exploiting each other to strike the common enemy, the government. "Because people are angry due to the deteriorating economic situation, you cannot differentiate between Al-Qaeda and separatists, since they all are against the government, and poor and unemployed young people look at them all as heroes," Qasem Khalil, a public figure from the southern province of Abyan, told the Weekly. What happened in Al-Huta this month happened last August in Lawdar in the southern province of Abyan where about 30-40 Al-Qaeda fighters escaped after five days of fierce confrontation in which about 33 people were killed, including 15 Al-Qaeda militants and 11 soldiers. "They used three pick-up trucks and escaped through one of the security checkpoints. The security soldiers let them go at the end," Khalil quoted local eyewitnesses. Most of those who escaped from Lawdar last August are believed to have joined the Al-Huta group. The war between Al-Qaeda and the Yemeni forces is continuing not only in the unstable south but almost everywhere. On 25 September, 10 intelligence officers were injured, three of them seriously, when a group of gunmen believed to be Al-Qaeda supporters opened fire on a bus carrying soldiers in the Political Security Agency, in Shamlan, on the northern outskirts of Sanaa. Four suspects were arrested later in the day after security forces were deployed in the capital. This attack came just a few days after Al-Qaeda announced the names of 55 security officials as legitimate targets. "Their attacks now are based on three motives: to prove they are still strong, to take revenge, and to recruit," said Said Al-Jemhi, chairman of the Al-Jemhi Centre for Studies, a recently established think tank specialising in Al-Qaeda affairs. Al-Jemhi believes that almost 50 per cent of the fighters and leaders of Al-Qaeda in Yemen are Saudi. "Saudis are important for finance and for experience," he said. The Yemeni government is using the courts to try the arrested militants. On 20 September, four men including a German Iraqi were put on trial before the State Security Court for planning to carry out terrorist acts against government and Western interests in Yemen. The State Security Court ruled on 21 September that Yemeni journalist Abdel-Illah Haidar Shaea be kept in prison for another 30 days. The journalist was arrested by the Yemeni intelligence at his house in Sanaa on 16 August. His file was submitted to the prosecution on 14 September. Shaea's crime was interviewing the top leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen Nasser Al-Wahaishi in January 2009, and later that year the American-Yemeni cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, who is wanted dead or alive by the CIA. The government media say that among the accusations against Shaea is that, "he is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, is the official spokesman for it and defends it. He offered the Baya [oath of loyalty] to the leader of Al-Qaeda Nasser Al-Wahaishi, and he has relations with Anwar Al-Awlaki." Shaea, who works with the Yemeni official news agency Saba, appeared recently on satellite channels including Al-Jazeera as an analyst with views critical of the government's dealing with Al-Qaeda.
