.
Muslim Brotherhood is aligned to the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The accusation stands that Hamas fighters attacked the prison in Egypt in January 2011 to free imprisoned Muslim Brothers including Morsi. Another ally Erdogan in Turkey is furious with the US and Western countries for its “hypocrisy” with the overthrow of President Morsi. Yemeni Al Qaeda fighters have joined forces with local terror groups in the Sinai.
Alleged plot to assassinate Sisi uncovered, as Sinai violence resumes
(JPost) – The Egyptian El-Watan newspaper, which tends to support the military and oppose the Muslim Brotherhood, reported on Monday that an assassination plot against General Fattah al-Sisi was uncovered. The report could not be confirmed.
The paper quoted sources that said that armed Islamists in the Sinai were part of a plan that was also targeting interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim and vice president Mohamed ElBaradei.
The attack was to be carried out in Cairo on the first day of Eid al-Fitr – the holiday marking the end of Ramadan – by jihadists, some of whom belong to the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Shrines in Northern Sinai have been destroyed, dedicated to saints or descendants of the Prophet Mohammad, such shrines are forbidden according to the puritanical Islamic vision of the militants operating in the area.
See also Egyptian army caught between rock of terrorism and hard place of religion
Al-Sisi will have to fend off terrorists while preserving the army’s legitimacy and allaying the suspicions of Bedouin leaders. Israel could see some shrapnel as well.
“The Last Refuge: al-Qaeda and America’s War in Yemen”
Aug. 29, 2012 – “After two months of fighting, Yemeni forces retook Ja’ar and the Abyan capital of Zinjibar from al-Qaeda in June.” Global Post, Sunday August 5, 2012
On Saturday August 4 2012, a suicide bomber killed at least 40 mourners at a funeral in Ja’ar near the Yemeni port of Aden. The target, a defector from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), managed to escape with minor injuries. On Tuesday August 7, U.S. drones killed 10 al-Qaeda militants in separate strikes aimed at moving vehicles in Yemen. On Saturday August 18, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the grenade-assault deaths of about 20 Yemeni intelligence and security personnel.
This tit-for-tat was not front page news, nor did it become a hot pundit topic at magazine sites like Foreign Policy. Even if the media weren’t in a 2012 presidential campaign frenzy, there would still be Egypt, Israel-Iran, Af/Pak and of course Syria. Yemen, a rather exciting place, has slipped through the cracks now that the hullabaloo over the drone assassination of American-born citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011 had its fifteen minutes. Awlaki preached death to Americans in videos on YouTube, and President Obama was keen on destroying the New Mexico native.
Flash Back to 1990
Johnsen relays the rise of Yemen’s Islamic militants since the 1980s, when the government of President Abdullah Ali al-Saleh encouraged its young men to go wage jihad in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and the true inspiration for al-Qaeda, Shayk Abdullah Azzam, were already there. Azzam had issued fatwas claiming it was the duty of all Muslims to defend their Afghan brethren and testified that he’d seen miracles in the battles against the evil Soviet machine. The day he was supposed to meet Abd al-Majid al-Zindani, a Yemeni cleric on his way to becoming the religious rationalizer of al-Qaeda in Yemen (AQY), Azzam was assassinated by a mujahadeen faction in the Afghan Civil War. Like Azzam, Zindani manipulated the Quran in key ways–primarily saying it allowed war with infidels as well as violence against Muslim apostates, a concept known as taqfir. Though not a true member of al-Qaeda, Zindani is still a major CIA target.
Also in 1990, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Saleh made a principled yet disastrous decision to stick by the Iraqis against a broad multinational coalition, including key Yemeni financial backers. Secretary of State James Baker told Yemen’s ambassador at a United Nations vote on whether to go to war with Iraq: “This will be the most expensive no vote you ever cast.” Saudi Arabia struck back at its southern neighbor by suspending all aid and sending a million Yemeni migrants back down to the poorest Arab country in the Middle East and North Africa.
Jihadists denounce attacks by Egyptian army in Sinai
(LWJ) – In a statement posted to jihadist forums on July 6, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya denounced the Egyptian army for firing on protesters in the city of el Arish in North Sinai. The statement, titled “Regarding the Crimes of the Army Elements Against the Protesters in Arish,” was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
The Salafi jihadist group charged that the Egyptian army had opened fire and wounded at least 21 people who were protesting “in front of the district building in Arish during afternoon prayers.” Jihadists are said to have overtaken the district building in el Arish and raised a black al Qaeda flag.
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The Brigades said that their goal is “to support the religion of Allah, and to make the words of Allah the highest, and to remove injustice from the people of Egypt.”The group concluded its statement by warning that “the traitors and the agents of the Jews and the Christians” must be wary as “what we have to say to them is what you will see and not what you hear. You will only see from us, Allah the Almighty permitting, what will harm you.”
It is not clear if the new group exists beyond the Internet or if it has any ties to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a jihadist group that has claimed responsibility for rocket attacks in Israel as well as the July 28, 2010 bombing of a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
Al-Awlaki Family Members Killed
(BooMan Tribune) Dec. 26, 2009 – Yemen seems to be a hotspot where the U.S. has focused to counteract Al-Qaeda. For months heavy fighting by government forces with U.S. aid and CIA intelligence. The forces of Saudi Arabia have entered the battle zone along the extensive border. The influx of Somalian refugees has compounded the problems and stability of the Muslim state.
Recently, U.S. cruise missile attack caused heavy casualties including 14 Bedouin children. More than 120 people were reportedly killed by an airstrike in Yemen’s Saada province — and the Huthi insurgency is blaming the U.S. Air Force. (Russia Today)
Yemeni journalist who reported US missile strike is released from jail
- Yemeni activist and Nobel Prize winner, Tawakkol Karman, banned from entering Egypt
- Erdogan cancels Gaza trip after running afoul of Egypt government
