Yemen: Al-Qaida, tribes and government ties

by Mohammad Ghazwan, for Yemenat

Sanaa–Before going into details about Al-Qaida; its relations and movement, this is about its activities during last ten days of Jan2011, which showed Al-Qaida as most strong. Al-Qaida has expanded in Abyan, mainly in Lawder and its elements made some unexpected operations. In Hadramout also an armed group of Al-Qaida made an ambush on Wed Jan 2011, targeting two cars belonging to the security administration and post office of Alshiher city, east of Mokala, resulting in five soldiers dead and seizing ten million YR which is the salary of employees of Alhami .The ambush was set by gunmen on a car and managed to escape. Such operations that target governmental bodies aim at taking money that the executive entity benefit from, except for one fifth given to senior leaderships, following a Qoranic text.

A similar operation executed earlier Jan 2011 by Al-Qaida, targeting a car belonging to electricity station with a million and five hundred thousand YR. The car was attacked by elements riding a motorcycle in Abyan, resulting in 4 civilian employees killings. The post office car was guarded by a military vehicle, yet astonishingly there was a looting of ten million YR. Al-Qaida managed to kill five soldiers and loot the money and left without being hurt even one of its approximately four people while the security composed of ten people.

In this operation, two motorcyclists controlled the electricity station car loaded with the electricity company revenues in Abyan, killed the innocent civil employees and escaped without being followed by security till later.

The question that rises is how can Alqaida elements gain detailed information on movement of civil governmental institutions cars that hold, and get ready to attack them, and how can Al-Qaida have almost secret information.

The Al-Qaida activities in Hadramout start with attacks, explosive devices implant and disappear. Sources said Alqaida cells in Hadramout move across the desert to Marib and Shabwa provinces, yet there are operations with no fingerprints of Al-Qaida in which the ministry of interior(MI) held AlQaida responsible while for other operations, such as attacking the post office car, the MI do not do that despite confirmations.

Situation in Abyan province

Sources said that AlQaida witnesses an expansion in Abyan and army forces heavily shell to beyond Lawder of Abyan, neighboring Albayda province with a focus on unpopulated valleys and mountainsides in which aQaida elements are expected to concentrate.

The shelling from inside Lawder does not exceed range of shells except two kilometers on areas with no AlQaida elements, it is only animals that were damaged.

Sources confirmed that Al-Qaida concentrated on about 10-15kms away from the city and had false tents at a distance of about seven kms and the army forces bombing only at night which is proved through seeing elements, at day time ,as they go shopping sneakily and return home.

For example, surveillance of a security soldier while returning from Qat market by an alQaida element who shot the soldier dead last week. The Interior Ministry declared an arrest of AlQaida group after attacking a foot patrol-resulting in a soldier killing, while the fact showed by local sources of Lowder is that no foot patrols at all and the killed soldier was returning from the Qat market that dozens of soldiers go to daily and the soldier was killed for personal reasons. Could the foot patrol be available at noon, if it would be absent at night and do Al-Qaida usually implement an attack without finding a way to escape…

According to sources in Mareb ,AlQaida killed deputy criminal investigation director ,Nabeel Abdula Aqlan ,who was attacked by Al-Qaida gunmen on board of a black Vitara without a plate, with three bullets on his body and died immediately while the gunmen fled towards a desert called Sahen Algen followed unsuccessfully by a military vehicle despite the fact that the vehicle is quicker and entrance to Mareb with arms is banned for there are checkpoints to secure tribesmen arms.

From other part, security apparatuses do not care about plating the cars inside Mareb as they are smuggled for internal uses and subsequently plated with temporary numbers, for the Bedouins do not afford paying customs fees imposed by the authorities.
 

The Sahen Algen, to which AlQaida elements fled, located towards Shabwa and it was easy to control escapees through communicate with checkpoints over the desert and neighboring provinces security forces, despite the fact that the Vitara is small and cannot withstand sand dunes and possibility of watching runaway cars in a flat area.

AlQaida-tribes Relationship
 

The relationship between AlQaida and the tribe concentrate in limited areas, with tribes that have direct ties with the power and its sheikhs. AlQaida does not exist in all Yemeni tribes, but they are within the ones that have links with AlQaida through the authorities and army leaderships.
 

We shall review AlQaida residences since existence in Yemen the Al-Qaida started in south Yemen, Abyan city , awarded a big piece of land a water well in Alfarsha , Modia district, and has been expanding since 1990 from inside Al Bakazem lands to Alawaleq and Ga « ar. As Alawaleq far spreads from Abyan to mid of Shabwa, there was presence in both the areas that were political enemies of pre-unity system.
 

The sheikhs who returned from Saudi Arabia were supported, some of them were dealt with through military leaderships, others , promoted to members in the house of parliaments through political bodies , especially after the civil war 94, liquidating leaders in socialist party through pre war assassination from 1990 till early 1994. They ,after the war,were forced to go abroad and others freezed, apart from those assassinated due to the war, such as Hasinon and Alsably .

» The AlQaida elements maintained good relationships with tribes of Abyan and Shabwa till today, for it is noticed AlQaida always fortify in both these cities, among Ja « ar , Lawder Mudia districts of Abyan, and recently in Alhawta area, Alawaleq tribes, Albakazem, Al ashal and few of them fortify in AlHasana tribes. In Hadramout AlQaida is not so powerful that they are protected or hidden, rather many of them were attacked in Sayoun ,Tareem and AlQaten district inside houses hired by the elements.Some of them were discovered through citizens notifications. Settlement is focused in Abyan and Shabwa is in terms of being protected, for these provinces are not so big and have empty areas except for Hadramout which have an area that equals the northern governorates in combination. Other cities are not so big that militants can hide in them.

» Shabwa, for example, is represented in parliament through sheikh Awadh bin Mohammed Alwazeer as head of the parliament bloc of Shabwa representatives. He is also the people « s congress party candidate, sheikh of the higher and lower Alawaleq tribe which spreads to Abyan, among those who were living in Saudi Arabia before unity as political refugees opponents of the socialist party ruler of south Yemen. He is granted big amounts of money and no less than 25 bodyguards in Sanaa.

The Alashal tribe is represented by sheikh Ashal, ruling party candidate .He was among the political refugees in Saudi Arabia representing the Islamic movement that opposed the socialist party in the south before unity.

Tareq Alfadli is one of Alawaleq Sheikhs, a follower of the Fadli Sultanate before British colonization Independence. He fled with his father after the socialist party took office and met the president and granted a high rank and dealt with through first brigade leaderships till a marrying from him. The leader belongs to Sanhan tribe, to which the president belongs. Most of the rulers of the tribes that fully support AlQaida are among the ruling party and the most closest to higher leadership, as well as the vice president and the prime minister are from Alawaleq in which AlQaida is fortified.

It shall be clear that existence of any undesired elements in any Yemeni tribe for a week maximally do not happen due to the fact that each tribe has its own limit and do not trespass the next tribe. Second, men of each tribe live in scattered villages in the lands, which is clear from the fact that Yemen has the biggest number of villages and scattered population, which is mentioned officially in reports and is considered a challenge development face, hence each village, through shepherds and wood collectors, recognizes its neighbors, and each village constitutes a part of the tribe and has its own limit within the tribe. If a foreigner is seen, the villagers are curious, also for security reasons, to know how he is. As the phenomenon is dominant within tribes it is easy to recognize any suspected AlQaida elements especially foreigners, a fact that all Yemeni people know.

There are no clear facts as how AlQaida is fortified in Mareb for it is possible that these elements move from Shabwa to Mareb within an hour and a half as the two province are neighbors.It is from south governorates that AlQaida has come, through Shabwa due to Qaidic intellectual fertility as long as Obaida tribe is a most distinguished in Mareb by virtue of the oil fields discovered in this tribe, the tribe that regard Alashraf its own according to a tribal old contract because the Alashraf are not tribes but rather Hashimites attached to Obaida and treated according to tribe traditions and take arms, have business except that they are not involved in judgment, and to inoculate Obaida against Hashmite thought a salafi school , which will be mentioned in next episodes, was established leaded by an Egyptian scholar called Adu Alhasan Almisri, who was granted a Yemeni nationality and a new name;Abu Alhasan Almaewbi, insisted by Obaida. His son was appointed as endowment director in Mareb.

It is worth mentioned that Alshabwani family belongs to Obaida that regards oil in its land and thinks should have privileges whether through working for the companies, having free of charge water and electricity and other service. The tribe adopts establishing religious identity of the city through the Salafi school backed by Saudi Arabia and the tribe with a new relationship. It includes officers in Saudi army and has borders with Saudi Arabia and AlQaida existed on its land infiltrated from Shabwa through an undeclared consent while other tries of Mareb, most people of which suffer bad conditions, did not receive like what Obaida got.

The AlQaida existed in Mareb in quick operations like what happens in Hadramout but not proven to settle in it, for Mareb citizens affiliating to AlQaida manage to have protection as tribal members and each of them can house a person or two with their places known. For example the Yemeni president managed to meet an element of AlQaida in Mareb according to AlQaida affiliate Khaled Alzaidi , from Duhm tribe, that he met with the president through his cousin; mayor of Mareb Naji Alzaidi, who asked him to come urgently, according to tribal customs.He spoke with the president and agreed with the latter to release a group of AlQaida prisoners. Khaled said this three months ago, confirming from his place of residence to hold the flag of Osama Bin Laden. He can move from Shabwa to Hadramout and Abyan and return to Juhm safely and his place of residence is known and other elements.

It is clear from explanation that AlQaida existence is limited to specific tribes in Shabwa and Abyan and move between Hadramout and Mareb. All of those tribes have hostile sheikhs to the city and strong ties with Saudi Arabia.

Tribes and government relationship

» The relation between tribe and power is the same as relation of power with sheikhs or through tribes dignitaries whether their importance came from inside the tribe or were promoted voluntarily as dignitaries by the power if interested in marginalizing a specific minor tribe « s sheikh who mutiny over a grand sheikh. One is granted a military post as well as some authorities and the minor tribesmen go to him and the mutinying sheikh » s authorities are diminished because each tribe consists of a group of minor tribes sheikhs and the greatest sheikh.

The power has supported negative sheikhs having been revived to control tribes of Shabwa and Abyan. It also tribe members of Shabwa and Abyan to hold arms for they did not use to have arms before 1990, and were easy to be captured.

Today, it is difficult to do that, for the ruling party supported this tend through reviving tribal traditions to change them from peaceful citizens to violent tribes. The ruling party benefited an easy way of dealing with individual sheikh and his family in giving them money in exchange for controlling men of his tribe. If the sheihk mutinies or have different opinions with other tribes, the nearby tribe is functioned to have violence with the mutinying tribe under pretext of revenge which is present in each neighboring tribes, rather each tribe has revenge with its constituents. The sheikhs treat the power through blackmailing and exchange of interests away from building a civilized country.

« It is difficult for any tribe to house any one, or to hide him, with consent of his great sheikh while the minor knows every guest for a tribe and it is difficult for any dignitary to stay in the tribe if he protected someone without the great sheikh » s approval and it is not easy for him to go for a walk. If a problem like this ever happened, it is tackled in the meaning that the tribesman guard the shelter-taker towards the other tribe, hence housing the government enemies in the tribes without its consent is rare, and alQaida elements hiding inside the abovementioned tribes without neither consent of the power nor knowledge of sheikhs with place of hiding is unbelievable matter.