Al Qaeda threatens to retaliate

Five members of an al-Qaeda cell were arrested in Qatan district of Hadramout governorate in the southeast of Yemen on Monday August 19, said a source at the Hadramout governorate security office.

The security source confirmed that the police forces arrested five members of al-Tawheed battalions affiliated with al-Qaeda in Qatan district to the west of Sayoun.

Based on information Newsyemen website attributed to a security source, one of the five detained militants fired his machinegun at the police forces when they stormed their hide out. Police made the arrests without any casualties. However, the source has not uncovered the names or identified any of the captured militants.

The security sources had announced last Sunday that a large scale man hunt was launched to capture 35 members of al-Qaeda terrorist cell.

In the same conext,  al-Qaeda faction in Yemen threatened retaliation for the killing of Hamza al-Quaiti and four other al-Qaeda members by the Yemeni security authorities in Tarim in the southeast of Yemen.

In a statement published on al-Ikhlas Islamic website last Wednesday, the al-Qaeda faction in Yemen admitted that five of their members were killed and two others injured and arrested by the Yemeni security forces in Tarim on August 11. The statement also acknowledged that eight Yemeni security men were killed and two military vehicles were burned during the battle.

“We promise you we will launch a retaliation operation soon, God willing. The news is what you see not what you hear,” said the statement.
 
The statement said that when a group al-Qaeda’s Yemen Battalion were living in a house in Tarim along with field commanders from al-Qaeda’s faction in the Arab Peninsula, a police vehicle carrying the manager of the political security force came near the house and a battle broke out between the two sides. At that point al-Qaeda’s Abdullah Batis assaulted the vehicle with his machine gun forcing the police force to call for reinforcements of a whole military brigade supported by two tanks.

The statement said, when the reinforcements arrived the battle worsened forcing the al-Qaeda fighters to move to another house while their commanders provided them cover.

“Some of the brothers moved to a neighboring house after which they headed to Ideed valley where a fierce battle broke out between them and an armored brigade equipped with heavy weapons,” said the statement.  

Also according to the statement, six al-Qaeda affiliates were in the house, including the commander Hamza al-Quaiti, Abdullah Batis, Hasan Bazara’ah, Mahmoud Barahma, Mohammed Baewidhan and Ali al-Akbari. Ali Muhsin al-Akbari and Mohammed Saeed Baewidhan were injured and arrested. Names of the field commanders from the Arab Peninsula and the names of those killed were not mentioned. 

The statement has not referred to the arrest of the Mukalla cell or the arrest of five other al-Qaeda affiliates in Qatan district of the Hadramout governorate. 

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