What is going on in Yemen? US Attacks or US "Advisors?" Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit What is going on in Yemen? US Attacks or USD "Advisors?" [The official story is: The government of Yemen has Seen the Light and is now staunchly on the side of the Crusade Against All Evil-Doers. So much so that the US has allegedly "trained" Yemeni troops to fight terror and evil so successfully, all in the last year since the bombing of the USS Cole, that they have handed over US weapons and told the Yemenis "Go to it, guys. Allah be with you." And all by themselves, the Yemenis have been battling terror and smoking out bad al Qaida varmints. Sure. We believe that. Meanwhile, Islamist militants are putting out the story that the USA is bombing Yemeni villages. [See: "Yemen Reported Under US Bombardment," Dec 20, 2001 in NY Transfer's Middle East newsfeed.] What apparently has happened, at the least, is that US advisors are accompanying and directing Yemeni attacks on targets in Yemen. At the most, the US military is doing it all and Yemen's military is giving them a cover story. But probably most of us grownups can understand that the US is not handing over sophisticated weaponry (with US serial numbers found on the ground) to the Yemenis to use as they see fit. In other words, Georgie Junior's Traveling Circus Perpetual Terror Crusade has already moved on to Yemen. Geraldo Revolver and Fox News just haven't caught up with the latest developments. Below is a group of mainstream items with the official story, a good backgrounder from the Guardian, and an article from the Scotsman that provides more detail on the USA's "training" of the Yemeni military.-- NY Transfer] * AP via The New York Times - December 20, 2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/20/international/middleeast/20YEME.html Yemen Adds Troops in Battle to Capture Suspects by the Associated Press DEN, Yemen, Dec. 19 -- Troop reinforcements moved into the remote hills of central Yemen today where government forces have battled tribesmen in an assault to capture suspected operatives of Osama bin Laden. There was sporadic gunfire reported in Shabwa and Marib Provinces, where heavy fighting took place Tuesday as the government tried to capture five suspected bin Laden loyalists being protected by the Abida tribe. Both provinces are strongholds of Islamic militants. Government security officials said it was not clear when the new troops would begin a new assault on villages in the rugged mountains and hills. Special forces trained with American help moved on several hillside villages in the Halsun region of Marib today, with tanks, helicopters and artillery, after the Abida tribe refused to hand over the five suspects. Four tribesmen and eight soldiers were killed. Seven other people died of their wounds today, security officials said; no details on their identities were provided. The five suspects were able to hide or escape the barrage, according to tribal sources and security officials in Marib Province, 100 miles east of the capital, Sana. Yemen's sweep appeared to be the most serious military operation yet by an Arab country against Al Qaeda, which the United States blames for the Sept. 11 attacks and the October 2000 strike against the Cole, a destroyer refueling in Yemen, that killed 17 sailors. The United States has pressured Yemen to crack down on the network's cells in the country. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said American personnel were not directly involved in the operation. "If you're saying, `Are we in there rooting around at the moment?' No," he said in Washington. He suggested that Yemen was acting to prevent Al Qaeda members from moving operations to its territory. "We have made it very clear for a period of months that if these people go somewhere else, we'll go find them," Mr. Rumsfeld said. Officials in countries that are likely prospects for Al Qaeda's next home "would want to try to clean out that crowd, too, and apparently that's what happened" in Yemen, he said. Security is tighter in Hadhramaut, Abyan and Lahij Provinces, eastern strongholds of Islamic militants. Mr. bin Laden's father moved to Saudi Arabia from Hadhramaut. Sources in the Marib region said one of the men being pursued was among three suspected operatives of Al Qaeda in Yemen whose names were given to the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, during his visit last month to Washington. They said at least one of the men being sought was a non-Yemeni Arab. Mr. bin Laden has substantial support in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Well-armed tribes have made it hard for the Yemeni government to impose the rule of law in Marib Province. The 5,000-member Abida tribe is the province's largest. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company * AFP via http://www.zawya.com Yemen pursues hunt for bin Laden fighters after 17 killed SANAA, Dec 19 (AFP) - Hundreds of Yemeni forces pursued a search operation for fighters from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network on Wednesday, a day after 17 people died in a battle, tribal and government sources said. "They are still looking for these people," a ministry of interior source told AFP. "It is not easy, these are tribal areas." A senior tribal source said 13 government troops and four tribesmen died Tuesday when army and police units fired mortars into Al-Hosun village in Marib province, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, setting off a gun and tank battle. Another 18 soldiers and seven tribesmen were wounded and taken to Sanaa for treatment, he said. Four army vehicles were destroyed in the shooting, the tribal source added. Troops backed by helicopters have been combing the provinces of Marib, Shabwa and Al-Juf for the last two weeks in search of three Yemenis believed to be ranking members of al-Qaeda, official sources said. One of them, known as Bin Thanian, had arrived in al-Hosun overnight accompanied by his family and with government troops in pursuit, according to a local dignitary. But he had managed to escape from al-Hosun and village and was on the run in Shabwa, the dignitary said. The authorities were still negotiating with the Abeideh tribe, who control the plains village near the town of Marib, to search several houses, tribal sources said. * BBC dispatch - 19 December 2001 http://news.bbc.co.uk Washington has welcomed action taken by the Yemeni Government against suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda militant network. Security forces attacked a village east of the capital Sanaa on Tuesday where suspected members of the network were thought to be hiding. In the wild, lawless tribal heartland of Yemen [al-Qaeda fugitives] could easily melt into their surroundings Yemen praised after al-Qaeda operation by Frank Gardner BBC Middle East correspondent At least 17 people were reportedly killed in the clash with tribesmen in al-Husoun in Marib province, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Sanaa. But three senior members of al-Qaeda escaped and the BBC's Middle East correspondent reports that the operation appears to have been a failure. Residents of al-Husoun are believed to have refused to hand over suspected al-Qaeda members when asked to do so by the authorities. According to tribal sources, 13 soldiers and five tribesmen were killed in the ensuing battle while 25 people were wounded, 18 of them soldiers. Four army vehicles were also destroyed. Praising the action, a spokesman for the US State Department in Washington said it was clear the Yemeni leader intended "to go after terrorism". Yemeni security forces are now hunting the three al-Qaeda suspects, all of whom are Yemenis. Our correspondent, Frank Gardner says that these people could easily melt into their surroundings in the wild, lawless tribal heartland of Yemen. Tracking them down in a country where the number of guns outnumbers the population by three-to-one is proving an uphill task, he says. New relations with US When Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently travelled to Washington for talks with the US administration, he was handed a list of names of suspected members of al-Qaeda, thought to be living in his country. Yemen is in fact the ancestral home of Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who is Washington's prime suspect in the 11 September terror attacks on America. In addition, a significant proportion of the Arab fighters who fought on behalf of the Taleban in Afghanistan are known to have originated from the country and President Saleh's government has said it wants to question about 500 of its nationals thought to have gone there. American and local forces are at present mopping up al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan, after the six-week US bombardment defeated the country's Taleban rulers who were sheltering Bin Laden and his men. Al-Qaeda is believed to have had training camps in remote areas of Yemen under the protection of local tribal leaders. The United States suspects that Bin Laden's men were also behind the attack on the USS Cole in southern Yemen's Aden harbour in October 2000, which killed 17 American sailors. * The Guardian - Dec 19, 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk Yemen launches attack on al-Qaida suspects by Ewen MacAskill, and Ian Black in Brussels The US-led war against terrorism entered a new phase yesterday when military action switched from Afghanistan to Yemen, where government forces used tanks, helicopters and artillery to storm mountain villages suspected of harbouring Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. In the first strike since September 11 by an Arab government against al-Qaida, 12 people were reported killed and 22 wounded in fighting in the Marib province, a wild and unruly mountain region that Yemeni government forces are normally wary of entering. The US and Britain provided surveillance and other intelligence help. One of the men targeted in the operation, though he is thought to have escaped, was on a list of three names supplied by US officials last month to the president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Salih, during a visit to Washington which included an Oval Office meeting with the US president, George Bush. The US and Britain welcomed the military action. Signalling a hawkish approach to the next stage of the campaign against terrorism, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said after a Nato meeting in Brussels: "The only way to deal with a terrorist network is to go after it wherever it is." He singled out Yemen but also mentioned Sudan and Somalia. The US has long hinted that the war in Afghanistan, which is now in effect over, would be followed by actions in up to 30 countries suspected of harbouring al-Qaida or other terrorist groups. That the US has gone ahead with its threat to expand the war on terrorism will create alarm in the Middle East, especially Iraq, seen by the US as a destabilising force in the region. While the governments of other countries on the list have indicated they will cooperate with the US, the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, will remain defiant. As the first Arab country to take decisive action against terrorism under the US umbrella, Yemen has made a symbolic shift, becoming the first Muslim country to take action against fellow Muslims. A western defence source said that no British special forces had been involved alongside the Yemeni troops. The source said he had no information about US forces. The Yemen government, which has been tolerant of al-Qaida forces in its country in the past, was forced to make a choice after September 11. Rather than face a US onslaught, Mr Salih opted to co-operate with Washington. As part of the deal agreed with Mr Bush, Mr Salih accepted US aid in return for promising to round up al-Qaida members. The Yemen government had been uncooperative with the US in its hunt for those responsible for a suicide attack on the USS Cole while docked in Yemen last year that killed 17 servicemen. The FBI pulled out of Yemen complaining about obstruction by the government. Since September 11, the government has made a huge tactical change and decided that al-Qaida was, after all, responsible, and the FBI is expected to return. A security source in the Yemen government said its forces had gone after five men, including a tribal chief, who was on the US wanted list, and several men who had fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as did many in al-Qaida. Government forces negotiated with the tribesmen for two days but they refused to hand over the wanted men. A Yemen interior ministry official said a number of people accused of hiding the wanted men had been arrested. In remarks widely interpreted as being directed at Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld told fellow ministers at Nato headquarters: "It should be of particular concern to all of us that the list of countries which today support global terrorism overlaps significantly with the list of countries that have weaponised chemical and biological agents, and which are seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and the means to deliver them. "As we look at the devastation they [terrorists] unleashed in the United States, contemplate the destruction they could wreak in New York, or London, or Paris, or Berlin with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons." Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 * Backgrounder from The Guardian - Dec 19, 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk Inside Yemen Violence dominates lawless province Training camps flourished during 1990s by Brian Whitaker Marib, the scene of yesterday's conflict in which 12 people are reported to have been killed, is simultaneously Yemen's most important province and its most lawless. It produces 40% of the country's oil (its only significant export) and the pipeline that carries this to the sea has often been attacked by local tribes. Marib is also home to the most notorious of Yemen's kidnappers. Over the past six years, 157 foreigners have been taken hostage - most of them spirited off to Marib and surrounding areas for a few weeks of "tribal hospitality" while their abductors demand schools, wells, jobs in the civil service or army, dollars or Toyota LandCruisers from the government. Yemenis travelling over the mountains into this wild area rarely go unarmed, and the authorities venture there at their peril. Pitched battles between the army and local tribes are far from uncommon and their outcome is by no means a foregone conclusion, but yesterday's was the first to be waged in the war against al-Qaida. The Bin Laden connection with Yemen dates back generations. The family originally came from Hadramawt in southern Yemen, where Mohammed bin Laden - Osama's father - was a relatively poor sheikh until he emigrated to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s and founded his construction empire. Osama has continued to maintain his Yemeni connections - one of his wives is a Yemeni and his father-in-law still lives there (he was recently hauled in for questioning). At one stage in the early 1990s, he offered large sums of money to Yemeni residents of Saudi Arabia if they would go back to Yemen and "live there as good Muslims". At the end of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, thousands of unemployed mojahedin flocked to Yemen. An abundance of weaponry in private hands, a lack of law enforcement, porous borders and false identity papers supplied by corrupt officials were all mustered - in the eyes of the mojahedin - to the service of God. Training camps flourished in Yemen for much of the 1990s. One of these - at Huttat in southern Yemen - was the base for the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan which kidnapped a group of 16 mainly British adventure tourists three years ago this month. Four of the tourists died during a rescue attempt and the leader of the Islamic Army, which the Yemeni authorities regard as an affiliate of al-Qaida, was later executed. In the early 1990s, the government in San'a was not particularly tough on the Islamic militants. It needed their help in the 1994 civil war against southerners - mainly former Marxists - who were attempting to secede. But since then, the government insists, everything has changed. It says there are no longer any training camps. It also claims to have expelled more than 14,000 "Arab Afghans" since 1996, though it acknowledges that there are still active Bin Laden supporters in the country. The suicide attack on USS Cole in Aden harbour last year, which killed 17 American sailors and injured 39, is believed to have been carried out by al-Qaida. Although the evidence is still circumstantial, several of the key suspects have been clearly linked to other Bin Laden exploits: the 1998 embassy bombings in east Africa, the foiled millennium plot and the September 11 attacks in the US. Since September 11, Yemen has adopted new security measures which are aimed partly at impressing the Americans but also at preventing a new influx of undesirables following the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Visas are no longer granted at the airport on arrival and individual tourists - though not organised groups - have been banned for the next three months. This, a security source explained, "is intended to stop infiltration of suspect elements into the country". Round-ups of known militants have been going on for weeks, and yesterday's battle seems to have been a result of this campaign. Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 * The [Murdoch-owned] Times of London - Dec 19, 2001 http://www.thetimes.co.uk Yemeni soldiers storm 'al-Qaeda base' by Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor YEMENI special forces launched a fierce assault in a remote region of the country yesterday against a tribal stronghold suspected of harbouring supporters of Osama bin Laden. At least 12 people were killed and 22 injured when airborne troops, dropped by helicopter and supported by tanks and artillery, stormed the village of al-Hosun, about 100 miles east of Sanaa, the capital. Reports from the area said that yesterday's fighting erupted after tribal leaders in Marib Province refused to hand over several suspected al-Qaeda members, including a chieftain and several veterans of the war in Afghanistan against Soviet occupation. The fighting died down after three hours, but similar operations are thought to be under way in at least two other eastern provinces. The raid was regarded as a pre-emptive strike to avert possible action by American forces as they prepare for "phase two" of their war against terror. Now that the campaign in Afghanistan is winding down, the focus is moving to other countries thought to be harbouring al-Qaeda cells, where fugitives from the fighting in Afghanistan may seek sanctuary. Yesterday's offensive was ordered by President Saleh of Yemen, who was told by the Bush Administration during a visit to Washington last month that his country had to do more to tackle terrorism. Since the deaths of 17 American sailors in the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbour in October last year by two suspected al-Qaeda suicide bombers, Yemen has been accused of failing to co-operate in the hunt for al-Qaeda members. In a separate attack last year the British Embassy in Sanaa was damaged by a bomb. Western sources in the capital said yesterday that the country still offered a safe haven for terrorists. Thousands of Yemenis served alongside bin Laden as volunteers during the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Today several hundred Yemenis are believed to belong to al-Qaeda, including two who are senior members of the organisation. With the collapse of the Taleban religious authority and the defeat of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, there are fears that bin Laden and his supporters may try to make their way to Yemen. Although bin Laden was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, his family comes from the Yemeni region of Hadramawt and he is related by marriage to one of Yemen's leading families. One Western diplomat said: "There are large areas of Yemen under the control of heavily armed tribesmen. They are lawless areas where the Government's writ does not run, where al-Qaeda members could seek shelter." American officials have described the country as a "mini-Afghanistan". Several provinces in mountain and desert areas are under the control of tribal chieftains who run their territory like medieval fiefdoms. Hostage-taking is common, arms are plentiful and the impoverished central Government is largely powerless to enforce the rule of law. Nevertheless, the United States has made clear to Yemen, and other countries in the area such as Somalia and Sudan, that unless action is taken against terrorist suspects, American forces are prepared to act on their own. Yemen insists that it is cooperating with Washington. Sanaa has begun to share intelligence, has silenced militant Islamic preachers, arrested terrorist suspects and even closed honey shops named by Washington as fronts for funding al-Qaeda. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. * More detail on US "Training" The Scotsman - Dec 19, 2001 http://www.thescotsman.co.uk Yemen blasts villages it says are sheltering al-Qaeda men Foreign Staff THE war on terror shifted to Yemen yesterday, as the government launched attacks on mountain villages said to be sheltering Osama bin Laden's supporters. The assault in central Yemen with tanks, helicopters and artillery were led by US-trained Yemeni special forces. It appeared the most serious military operation yet in an Arab country against the al-Qaeda network, blamed for the 11 September terror attacks. Up to a dozen people were reported killed and others, including several soldiers, were injured what was called a wide search operation. The attack came after the Adiba tribe refused despite two days of negotiations to hand over at least five men suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda. At least one man was on a list of suspected al-Qaeda operatives US officials gave the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, during his visit last month to Washington, sources said. The wanted list is also said to include a local tribal chief. Although no US operatives took part in the operation, Yemeni authorities have kept American officials informed of the search for the suspects, an interior ministry official said. The special forces unit was the first to graduate from a US-funded programme to train and equip Yemen's security forces. In Washington, the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz said the United States has been "urging the Yemenis to do more" about al-Qaeda suspects in the country. But he said he had no information on the special forces' operation. The US administration has long been concerned about "pockets where we believe al-Qaeda people have sheltered and may be there now" in Yemen, particularly along the remote Saudi border, he said. Bin Laden's father was born in the Hadramout region of Yemen before moving to Saudi Arabia, where he built his multi-billion construction business. The US believes al-Qaeda was also behind the October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole in the southern port of Aden, which killed 17 US sailors. Marib province, home to four powerful tribes with more than 70 branches, has a wild reputation. Since 1990, about 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Marib, a mix of mountains, deserts and cloud-high villages. The 5,000-strong Abida tribe is the largest in the province. Roads in Marib are dotted with checkpoints manned by troops or tribesmen, and non-Yemenis travel only in armed convoys. Western diplomats say many of the Islamic militants in Yemen are war veterans who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Many are protected by powerful tribal leaders in mountain regions outside the central government's control. There is speculation that Abu al-Hassan, an Egyptian member of Islamic Jihad, which merged into al-Qaeda, might be among those sought. Yemeni officials began working more closely with the US after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Relations had soured in the Persian Gulf war when Yemen threw its support to Iraq. "September 11 was a shock, and since then there has been a new co-operation, a genuine one, to combat terrorism," the interior minister, Rashid al-Alimi, said in a recent interview. The Yemeni security police had begun to pick up suspects for interrogation. But bin Laden is also said to have many supporters within the military and the security services. Many of the people on the first list of suspects the US gave Yemen were tipped off and fled the country. A peackeeping vanguard of up to 200 British marines is expected to be on the streets of Kabul by Saturday, when the new interim Afghan government assumes power, the Ministry of Defence announced. The troops, from 40 Commando, will come from a British contingent securing Bagram air base, 25 miles north of the capital, and from the landing ship HMS Fearless, which is on standby in the Arabian Gulf. A multinational force of 3,000 to 5,000 international peacekeepers, led by Britain, is to be deployed to Afghanistan under the terms of the Bonn agreement on Afghanistan's future. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmed-12.22.01-05:32:15-14772