Sunday, November 14, 2010

YemenWatch: Sunday November 14, 2010

There's a lot happening in Yemen right now, so this post will be rather long.

First of all, SabaNews (Yemen News Agency) has an interesting interview with one of President Saleh's advisers.  It's definitely worth a read.  His mind-set is a bit disturbing.

The Yemeni military is carrying out air strikes in northern Yemen, on areas where AQAP is suspected to be hiding.  This is happening around Sana'a.  I'll have to check, but I thought most of the fighting in this area was tribal, not AQAP.

Last YemenWatch I linked to an article from a Kuwaiti paper saying that many al-Qa'eda leaders from Afghanistan were now in Yemen.  The Yemeni government (a "security source") is unofficially saying that's not true, and calling for the media to be more accurate.

Germany will now allow passenger flights from Yemen.  Last week they had banned all flights, so Yemen invited them to check their new security procedures at Sana'a airport.  A German team did that, so now passenger flights are re-allowed.

On September 13th a liquid-natural gas (LNG) pipeline from Marib to Shabwa was blown up.  AQAP just released a video claiming credit for that.

The American who moved to Yemen and was arrested for terrorism has been tortured.  Which appears to be typical for Yemeni jails.  What is interesting is that according to the Yemen Post:  "He is now being trialed not on terror charges, but for killing a soldier. Yemeni government has said that there is no proof that Mobley is linked to terrorism."   I really don't know what is going on with this situation.  Is he really a terrorist, or is this some person who was easy to accuse, and then tried to escape from his captors and killed one of them?  His wife is really upset, and says the US embassy is not helping much.

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Separatists staged a protest in Shabwa province, demanding that one of their leaders be released from prison.  Four of them were arrested.  The overall leader of the separatist movement seems to be Ali Salem Al-Baidh, who used to be vice-president of Yemen.  He is currently in exile, probably in Germany.

There was a large fire in Aden over the weekend.  The 4th one this year.  Supposedly it was started by an electrical malfunction, but who knows.  Considering the state of affairs in Aden and southern Yemen, it could just as easily be separatists.  Of course, it could just as easily be a short-circuit.  It's really hard to tell what's actually happening in Yemen.

Prisoners in Hudaydah province went on a hunger strike to protest their treatment.

A girl in Dhale province was killed when a clock sent to her father blew up, as she plugged it in.

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