Islamist militants launch raid in Yemen

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Islamist militants launch raid in Yemen

By Noah Browning in Beirut and Peel in Abu Dhabi

Published: June 16 2011 03:59 | Last updated: June 16 2011 03:59

Islamist militants launched lethal raids on government buildings in south Yemen

on Wednesday, local residents said, in a sign of rising religious radicalism

that analysts think has more to do with domestic power struggles than

international terrorism.

At least one person died in the attacks in the city of Houta, capital of Lahij

province, security officials said, amid fears among foreign powers that a

political vacuum left by civil conflict and the departure of Ali Abdullah Saleh,

the injured president, could allow al-Qaeda to flourish.

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But Yemen experts said there were strong indications that the emerging Islamist

militias were part of a multifaceted battle between loyalist army units and

regime allies who have defected to join the months-long uprising against Mr

Saleh's 33-year rule.

Day, a former UK diplomat, said: " Amid the confusion and anarchy, it is

quite likely that old scores are being settled. In all of this, al-Qaeda is the

least meaningful or well-evidenced label. "

The Houta attackers stormed offices of Yemen's central bank and a judicial

building, killing three guards and wounding four before being repulsed,

residents were quoted as saying. The militants, who numbered up to 200, seized

neighbourhoods and killed a soldier in gunfights with government forces,

according to news agencies.

Fierce fighting in Yemen's restive south since Mr Saleh's departure this month

has convinced some foreign governments and media that al-Qaeda in the Arabian

Peninsula will capitalise on the chaos and launch further attacks.

The US and Saudi Arabia had launched a vast intelligence campaign to combat the

organisation and to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, its charismatic advocate who has

sought refuge in southern Yemen.

Those plans were confounded by the uprising, as US-armed and funded domestic

counterterrorism forces largely abandoned the south, spurring Washington to

resume air strikes on suspected al-Qaeda targets. But some observers said

terrorists were just one of a variety of interests trying to profit from the

turmoil created by months of fighting and the absence abroad of the president

and many other senior government decision-makers.

Shukri Hussein, a journalist from the southern province of Abyan, said: " There

are criminal cartels, tribes, secessionists, Islamist groups, masked bandits —

and also, we suspect, al-Qaeda taking over the situation " .

In a deeply conservative area over which the government's control was always

weak, the majority of armed groups are professedly jihadi but do not share

al-Qaeda's millenarian global agenda, said local leaders.

Sheikh Abu Abdullah Ba Harmuz, from the town of Lawdar, in which militants have

battled elite military units, said: " Now that the army has left, the sons of

this area have organised to defend our safety, and to uphold Islamic law.

" Many of them consider the current government godless, and have resolved to keep

them out — but they are certainly not al-Qaeda. "

Another reason to remain sceptical about a surge in al-Qaeda activity now Mr

Saleh has left is that his government — while publicly committed to rooting out

jihadi groups — was always much less hostile to them in private.

Some analysts and many ordinary Yemenis believe that Mr Saleh's government had

communication with al-Qaeda — or at the very least tolerated its activity as a

way of winning foreign military aid.

Dr Abdul Ghani al-Iryani, an analyst, said: " The fact remains that central

religious and military officials in his regime, many of whom have now defected,

had contacts with them and other extremist groups. "

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