Series of Deadly Blows – Will the Yemeni Army Succeed in Eliminating Al-Qaeda?
Yemeni army commanders launched the final push to drive al-Qaeda fighters out of Abyan, deploying hundreds of soldiers and armored personnel carriers as reinforcements. Armored personnel carriers, armed vehicles and support trucks were seen heading from the city to the neighboring southern province. The reinforcements will reinforce Operation Seham al-Sharq to fight al-Qaeda remnants believed to be holed up in the mountainous al-Mahfid region, said Mohsen al-Wali, commander-in-chief of the Security Belt forces.
“Security Belt forces will tighten checkpoints in the cities along with the General Security forces,” al-Wali said. “The support and reinforcement forces will fight terrorism and crack down on terrorist elements in the mountainous areas where they are hiding and trying to destabilize security.”
Security movement
Arab News International newspaper confirmed that Al-Qaeda trained gunmen and planned attacks and kidnappings of prisoners, placing them in the mountainous Abyan and Shabwah Highlands. Support groups and the security belt are controlled by the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council. Aden and other southern cities have enjoyed relative peace in recent months due to military operations in Abyan and Shabwah, which have forced many al-Qaeda fighters out of their safe havens for a long time, al-Wali said. Pro-independence forces moved into the provinces in September in response to a series of deadly al-Qaeda attacks on military targets and the kidnapping of aid workers.
For the first time in years, she said, Yemeni forces have advanced into Abyan’s mountainous and rugged valleys, such as the valleys of Mujan, Amran and Khaila, long considered al-Qaeda strongholds where militants train and recruit fighters freely and store weapons. Fleeing militants have placed large numbers of landmines and improvised explosive devices in valleys and mountains to prevent troops from advancing into their strongholds.
Hard hit
According to the International Newspaper, al-Qaeda has been hit hard in Yemen over the past six years after military and security forces, trained and armed by the Arab coalition, drove it from its main southern urban strongholds, particularly Mukalla, the capital of Hadramaut, and the towns of Lahij, Abyan, and Shabwah.
