SANA'A: Amid leaking intelligence pointing to the American militarization of the Arabian Peninsula, as it prepares for a potential armed conflict with Iran, and steps up its “War on Terror” in the region, officials in Somalia announced that hundreds upon hundreds of al-Shabab Jihadists fighters were headed for Yemen in a bid to join up with al-Qaeda there. Reports already confirmed that as many as 8 boats had left Kismayu port in Somalia for Yemen in the past 48 hours alone. Since informants advanced that each boat had an 100 person capacity, 800 armed militants could be now heading for the shore of the poorest and most unstable country in the Arabian Peninsula. The Jihadist mercenaries, also known as al-Mujahedeen al-Muhajereen (the migrants jihadists), could be now turning their attention towards Yemen and its Ansar al Shariah as they believe their task in Somalia complete, while Yemen's campaign was only starting. Even since the beginning of the Yemeni popular uprising, al-Qaeda fighters in the country used the power vacuum left by the protests to further their territorial ambitions in the tribal southern provinces of Abyan and Mareb, seizing towns and villages. Emboldened by the government's inability to thwart their moves, al-Qaeda declared a few months ago that it aimed at setting up an Islamic Caliphate in Yemen, returning to an ancestral governing system based solely on the Muslims scriptures. In February, al-Shabab declared in a statement that it was looking at partnering with al-Qaeda in Yemen in a bid to control the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, saying it had already sent dozens of fighters. Still reeling from the repercussions of a year of unrest and much political instability, Yemen will have now to face yet another internal threat, that of migrating terrorism. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/4TKhJ Tags: Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, featured, Yemen Section: Latest News, Yemen
