Monday, September 27, 2010

Yemen: Al Qaeda 2.0

 Al Qaeda in Yemen has learned from the mistakes made in Iraq and other battle zones
July 28, 2010, against the arrest of 10 men suspected in ambushing a military vehicle and killing four soldiers. (AFP/Getty Images) 
Yemeni man walks past burning tires SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni soldiers streamed into the streets of the capital this weekend after a deadly attack on intelligence services by alleged Al Qaeda gunmen, underscoring the impact of what U.S. government officials and experts on terrorism say has become the world’s most active and dangerous offshoot of Al Qaeda.
With dozens of attacks this year on spy and security forces, including deadly raids into the very headquarters of Yemen’s “mukhabarat,” or intelligence branch, Yemen’s newly invigorated Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is reshaping the mission, strategy and tactics of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda brand, experts say. And the Yemeni government is now stepping up its effort to confront this insurgency and doing so with pledges of more than $1 billion in military aid from the United States.
At this point, there is a "raging war taking place between Al Qaeda in Yemen and the Yemeni government,’’ said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle East politics at the London School of Economics, and a longtime scholar of Al Qaeda.
Diversifying from Al Qaeda’s core vision of mass-casualty attacks upon people of the distant, hated West, Al Qaeda fighters in Yemen have redirected their aim squarely upon the weak, fumbling and corrupt government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh this summer sided more than ever with the United States against the Al Qaeda forces who have made their home in his country, proclaiming Al Qaeda the greatest danger to his country.
Increasing the threat, this is an incarnation of Al Qaeda that has learned from the mistakes of Al Qaeda in Iraq and other battle zones, experts say. This is an Al Qaeda driven by ardent and experienced Saudi veterans of campaigns against U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Before, they were hiding in the mountains, in deserted places,” said Saeed Ali al-Jemhi, a Yemeni author on Al Qaeda. “Now, they are hitting in the cities.”
These days, bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda and the architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, is believed by many terrorism experts and counterterrorism officials to be hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Al Qaeda groups in Iraq and in the Sahara have floundered after alienating their Sunni Muslim base. Al Qaeda’s offshoots in Somalia and Indonesia continue to struggle to take form.
But here, Al Qaeda in Yemen, made up of a few hundred members at most, is coordinated, motivated and on the attack, terrorism experts say.
Al Qaeda fighters have hit checkpoints, police stations, intelligence offices and, in June, the high-walled, tightly guarded compound of Yemen’s domestic intelligence agency in the port city of Aden, killing 13 in one well-planned assault. This month, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula published the names of 55 Yemeni security and intelligence officials it intended to kill.
Saturday morning, suspected Al Qaeda gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying guards for one of Yemen’s intelligence branches, according to news reports. The barrage killed at least two aboard the bus.
Yemeni security forces typically have been able to shield the capital, Sanaa, from most of the violence that hits elsewhere in the country; in response to the attack on the bus, Yemeni troops took up positions in roadways throughout the city. Soldiers flagged down vehicles to peer inside at the occupants.
Adding to the pressure on Saleh’s government, the United States in particular has pressed Yemen hard for decisive action after the failed December attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, by a man trained for the attack by Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Last month, an Al Qaeda ambush in a market in southern Yemen helped push Saleh and his largely family-run security forces into Yemen’s first full-on assault on Al Qaeda.
In that attack, witnesses and townspeople said, armed and bearded Al Qaeda fighters came upon a dozen or so Yemeni soldiers in an open-air market in the city of Lowdar. At the time, the souk’s stalls of okra, potatoes, tomatoes, rice and fish were crowded with shoppers buying food to break the daily fast of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
The Yemeni soldiers pleaded for their lives — even handed over their guns, unasked, said Ali Saleh, who was shopping in the market that day.
‘’We are Muslim,’’ shoppers heard the Yemeni soldiers tell the Al Qaeda gunmen.
The Al Qaeda fighters opened fire regardless. By the next day, Aug. 20, at least two of the Yemeni soldiers had died. That afternoon, hundreds of Yemeni troops rolled toward Lowdar, in Yemen’s largest mobilization yet against the terrorist group.
Fighting between Al Qaeda and Yemeni forces intensified again last week, when Yemeni forces surrounded the southeastern town of Huta with tanks and artillery. Security officials pledged full-scale airstrikes, and ordered all innocent civilians out. By Friday morning, Yemen’s military said it had taken the town.2

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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