March 3rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Yemen rebels say bomb wounds 22 at protest in north

SANAA (Reuters) – A bomb blast hit an anti-U.S. protest in northern Yemen Friday, wounding at least 22 people, a rebel group that controls much of the north of the country said.

In a statement, the leader of the Houthi movement – Shi’ite rebels that Yemen’s military tried to crush in campaigns in 2004-2009 – said the bombing took place in the province of Saada, on Yemen’s northwestern border with Saudi Arabia.

It did not say who it believed carried out the attack.

The region has seen bouts of fighting in recent months between the Houthis and Sunni Muslims espousing puritanical Salafi doctrines influential in Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have accused Riyadh of arming their foes.

The conflict with the Houthis is one of several facing Yemen’s new president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, as he tries to implement a power transfer backed by Riyadh and Washington.

Al Qaeda’s active Arabian Peninsula branch is based in Yemen, and claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in southern Yemen that killed at least 26 people last Saturday, the day Hadi was sworn in.

The transition plan is aimed at averting civil war among an army divided between foes and allies of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Mass protests against him last year were coupled with fighting between pro- and anti-Saleh units.

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February 24th, 2012 by Oman Views

The Iraq War Invasion Plot Is Playing Out Again in Iran

The threat Iran poses to U.S. national security is beginning to sound eerily similar to the widely touted threat posed by Iraq in the run-up to its invasion in 2003. It’s a recipe that calls for a frothy link to al Qaeda and a generous helping of WMD fears.

The prospect of a nuclear-armed Tehran has loomed over discussions about a military intervention in Iran for years, but only recently have the country’s ties to al Qaeda crept into the mainstream.

In elite foreign policy circles, the link between Iran and al Qaeda gained prominence in late January following the publication of a 2,000-word Foreign Affairs article “Al Qaeda in Iran” by the Rand Corporation’s Seth Jones.

Jones wrote that several of al Qaeda’s most senior leaders are being held in Iran under house arrest and that “evidence of the Iranian-al Qaeda partnership abounds.”

Despite the fact that the Sunni terrorist group despises Shias, Jones emphasized that both groups share a hatred of the United States and called on U.S. policymakers to “draw greater public attention to Iran’s limited, but still unacceptable, cooperation with al Qaeda.”

It didn’t take long for Jones’s warnings to gain wider circulation. Five days after the article’s publication, The Wall Street Journal’s Siobhan Gorman wrote a piece titled “U.S. Fears Iran’s Links to al Qaeda,” pushing the story further.

“U.S. officials say they believe Iran recently gave new freedoms to as many as five top al Qaeda operatives who have been under house arrest, including the option to leave the country, and may have provided some material aid to the terrorist group,” writes Gorman in her lede.

It isn’t until the second-to-last paragraph that we’re told the terrorists would face arrest and prosecution if they took the option to leave Iran (a less fearsome prospect than releasing them).

Jones is cited in the article saying Iran has “in effect,” given sanctuary to senior al Qaeda leaders for years, though the U.S. officials alluded in the story remain anonymous.

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By John Hudson | The Atlantic Wire

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February 14th, 2012 by Oman Views

Al Qaeda leader backs Syrian revolt against Assad

DUBAI (Reuters) – Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in a video recording posted on the Internet on Sunday, urged Syrians not to rely on the West or Arab governments in their uprising to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

In the eight-minute video, entitled “Onwards, Lions of Syria” and posted on an Islamist website, the Egyptian-born Zawahri also urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels confronting Assad’s forces.

“Wounded Syria still bleeds day after day, while the butcher, son of the butcher Bashar bin Hafiz (Hafez al-Assad), is not deterred to stop,” Zawahri, wearing his white turban and seated against a green curtain, said.

“But the resistance of our people in Syria despite all the pain, sacrifice and bloodshed escalates and grows,” he added.

Zawahri took command of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in a raid in Pakistan last May.

A Muslim should help “his brothers in Syria with all that he can, with his life, money, opinion, as well as information,” Zawahri says.

Syrian forces bombarded districts of the city of Homs on Saturday in a campaign to crush the revolt against Assad, whose ally Russia said it would not support an Arab League peace plan circulating at the United Nations.

Activists said seven people were killed in the latest attacks in a week-long government siege of Homs, which has been at the heart of the uprising which broke out 11 months ago.

“Our people in Syria, don’t rely on the West or the United States or Arab governments and Turkey,” Zawahri said in what is believed to be his second such message to Syrian protesters.

“You know better what they are planning against you. Our people in Syria, don’t depend on the Arab League and its corrupt governments supporting it.”

Arab foreign ministers will discuss a proposal next week to send a joint U.N.-Arab mission to Syria, after a uniquely Arab team failed to end Assad’s crackdown on protests.

“If we want freedom, we must be liberated from this regime. If we want justice, we must retaliate against this regime,” Zawahri said.

“Continue your revolt and anger, don’t accept anything else apart from independent, respectful governments.”

In July, Zawahri urged Syrian protesters to direct their movement also against Washington and Israel, denouncing the United States as insincere in showing solidarity with them.

Earlier this month, another video with Zawahri appeared on Islamist forums, announcing Somali militant group al Shabaab was joining its ranks in an apparent bid to boost morale and sharpen a threat to Western targets.

By Martina Fuchs | Reuters | Reporting by Martina Fuchs; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Michael Roddy

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