Yemeni officials claim that the portions of the military still loyal to the Saleh regime have made “progress” in attacking the southwestern town on Zinjibar. They provided no information, however, about how soon they expected to reclaim it.
Indications are, however, that fighting continued Monday, after clashes over the weekend left at least 27 combatants slain and an unknown number of others wounded. The exact casualty tolls for Monday were unclear.
Zinjibar has been outside of regime control since last month, when the escalating civil war between tribes and regime forces in the capital was exploited by an unrelated Islamist faction, which the government says is affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Since the town fell, other neighboring towns also fell to the faction, prompting a large number of US drone strikes in the area. The claims of AQAP affiliation have yet to be verified, and opposition figures have accused the Saleh government of making this up in an attempt to curry more support from the US.
It is amazing how some still believe in Al-Qaeda "faction" myth created by Saleh a long time ago to pump money from Uncle Sam, along with military hardware, training, and GRATIS air strikes against the regions that are independence-minded. The problem is, there are too many interests in Uncle Sam's circles that are too willing, and too happy to believe. All we did was to make a strongman "indispensable". With the south-west escaping his control, oil wells would go as well. Hence, Al-Qaeda monsters are "discovered" there. South WAS INDEPENDENT unitl nineties, when it was forcibly added to Yemen. It is time to abolish the myth, and deal with reality. The "militants" consist of Saleh's special ops that are trying to wrestle control from the locals. And Saleh's military then comes in as a saviour, in fact, only to HELP "miltants" kick local tribes. Then suddenly — air strike gallore. In spite of all, there will be too many in Uncle Sam's circles that are not willing to let go of the myth. Good old AlQaeda — who wants to give up all this revenue?
Oh, what a tangled web we weave….
Bianca has but unraveled the true picture of the so-called Al-Qaeda.In Yemen, people know each other and Saleh's regime is so flawed that nothing could be kept secret.To give an example of how incidents could easely be attributed to al-qaeda and for saleh to take a forward seat in fighting alqaeda, is his beloved horses in his gorgious farm in Abien.This farm was taken by the so-called Al-Qaeda and later the horses accompanied by some visious fighters, were delivered to Saleh's palace in San'a, where they has lunch with the president and chewed qat before leaving back to Abien.