Greater Middle East

Yemen: clerics warn of jihad if US sends troops

A group of prominent Muslim clerics warned Jan. 14 they will call for jihad, or holy war, if the US sends troops to fight al-Qaeda in Yemen. The group of 15 clergymen includes the highly influential Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, who is deemed a spiritual mentor of Osama bin Laden by the US but who is courted by the Yemeni government for his important backing. "If any foreign country insists on aggression and the invasion of the country or interference, in a military or security way, Muslim sons are duty bound to carry out jihad and fight the aggressors," the clerics said in a statement.

United Arab Emirates sheikh acquitted in torture case

A member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family was found innocent Jan. 10 of the torture and rape of an Afghan national. The judge reading the verdict at a court in the United Arab Emirates, the world's third largest oil exporter and a US ally, gave no reason why Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan was exonerated of responsibility for abuse shown in a video first made public on the ABC network last year. But a lawyer for the sheikh, a son of UAE founder Sheikh Zayed, said his client was found to have "diminished liability" because two former business associates had drugged him and taken the video to extort money. The two men, Lebanese-American brothers Bassam and Ghassan Nabulsi, were sentenced to five years in absentia and fined 10,000 dirhams ($2,723) for blackmail.

Jordan-CIA connection in Afghan suicide blast

The suicide bombing that killed seven CIA operatives and one Jordanian intelligence official in Afghanistan last week sheds light on secretive partnerships the US has forged in its shadow war against al-Qaeda. Jordan has evidently been involved in supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, despite the unpopularity of both wars among Arabs. The death of Jordanian Army Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a distant relative of Jordan's King Abdullah II, alongside CIA operatives—and the fact that the attacker was apparently Jordanian double agent—has brought at elements of this partnership into the open. The suspected bomber, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, was a Jordanian informant who CIA and Jordanian intelligence officials hoped would lead them to al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The blast was the worst loss of life for the CIA since the Beirut embassy bombing of 1983. (CSM, Jan. 6)

Copts riot in Egypt after drive-by attack on Christmas mass

Thousands of Coptic Christians clashed with police in southern Egypt Jan. 7 during a funeral procession for seven people shot dead as they left a Christmas service hours earlier. Protesters hurled stones at vehicles and set fire to ambulances in the town of Nag Hamadi, 40 miles from the ancient ruins of Luxor. The unrest was sparked by a drive-by shooting in which three men sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd leaving a midnight Mass to mark the Coptic Christmas.

US suspending Guantánamo detainee transfers to Yemen

A White House spokesman said Jan. 5 that the US government will suspend transfers of Guantánamo Bay detainees to Yemen. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made the announcement at his daily briefing amid increasing political pressure not to transfer any more detainees to Yemen after it was revealed that the man who attempted to detonate an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last month received al-Qaeda training in Yemen.

Yemen: next in GWOT cross-hairs

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama have agreed to fund a special counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle the rising threat from the country. The announcement comes as the US and UK shut their embassies in Yemen's capital Sana Dec. 3, the US State Department citing unspecified but "ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," the regional franchise of the terror network. The closures came a day after a quiet visit to Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the US regional commander, who delivered a message from Obama of support for Yemen's unity and counter-terrorism efforts. (Press TV, NYT, Jan. 3)

Yemen link claimed in apparent al-Qaeda Christmas terror attempt

The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), says he has information the suspect in the apparent thwarted Christmas Day terrorism attempt may have had contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based radical imam with ties to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings. The incident on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit "definitely appears to be al-Qaeda-related," King said. "This was not a firecracker. This was for real." (Bloomberg, Dec. 26)

Yemen: new air-strikes target al-Qaeda

A group of 34 al-Qaeda militants were killed and 17 others were arrested by special operations in Abyan province, Sana'a city and Arhab district in Yemen, authorities announced Dec. 17. Warplanes reportedly carried out air-strikes against an al-Qaeda training camp in al-Ma'jala area of Abyan governorate, while safe houses were raided in Sana'a, the capital. (Yemen Observer, Dec. 17)

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