Al-Qaeda Fighters Take Control of Yemen Town [corpses strewn across dusty streets]

Al-Qaeda fighters have taken control of a provincial capital in Southern Yemen, heightening fears that the country's political crisis is playing into the hands of the terrorist group.

Residents of Zinjibar, a town on the southern coast that is home to some 18,000 people, said that 200 masked Islamist militants, some of them members of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, or AQAP, launched an attack that began on Friday afternoon.

The fighters were accused of pillaging the town, burning down buildings and launching violent reprisals that left corpses strewn across dusty streets....

thank you for taking the time to explain that.
i think i understand now.
i still see little hope of a “a more benevolent force.”.
even if they did get power, they’d be forced to be more extreme, just as in every other Muslim Nation,
where no one wishes to be seen as more Western and less Muslim.
but, thanks to you, i see that propping up someone they DON’T want, makes it even worse for us, by association.
so is a pointless waste.

(that same reason, is why i think the drones in Afghanistan are a bad idea. i think it generates far more ill-will in propaganda against us, than killing a few dozen helps.)

Agreed, our interests are in a difficult place. There are a lot of Yemeni groups that want to see Yemen as a modern nation. Unfortunately, they don't have the better weapons.

Yemen is the land of getting what you want by force. Any future leaders have to be from the tribes, likely from the powerful Hashid tribe.

Yemeni thought is much less about Islam, and AQ appeals to them not because of jihadist notions but because of an anti-outsiders, anti-western, anti-other arabs distrust and in many, hatred.

The best we could ever hope for is control of the larger cities and coastline, forget the lawless countryside.

We and the other arab states nearby have been propping up Saleh because he was at least effective. He maintained order by bribing the tribes and clans and, Saleh had a potent military.

If the tribal sheikhs give the word, there would be an almost instant and complete desertion and Saleh won't have long to live.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/in-transition/At-Least-37-Dead-in-Yemen-Fighting-——122929258.html

Officials in Yemen say at least 37 people were killed in heavy fighting overnight in the capital, Sana’a.

Battles raged on several fronts as a tenuous ceasefire announced Friday broke down. The fighting in Sana’a erupted early Tuesday with breakaway army units loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar attacking a number of government buildings.

Opposition tribesmen say they took control of the Interior Ministry and the headquarters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ruling party, but the government denied the takeover.

Meanwhile, fighting continued Tuesday in two southern cities. Officials say militants killed at least five soldiers in an ambush outside the southern city of Zinjibar, which was seized by hundreds of Islamist fighters on Sunday.

In the flashpoint city of Taiz, also in the south, security forces fired on anti-government demonstrators, killing four people. At least 25 people have died in violence in Taiz in the past three days.

On Monday, Yemeni forces fired live ammunition and crushed a field hospital as they took control of a central square that had been occupied by anti-government demonstrators.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay Tuesday condemned the government’s intensified use of force against protesters, calling its acts “reprehensible” and urging the government to make sure the human rights of its citizens are protected.

She also criticized security forces for occupying a hospital in Taiz and destroying the field clinic. Pillay said medical staff and facilities should never be targeted by government forces.

Also Tuesday, an Italian foreign ministry spokesman said Italy has temporarily closed its embassy in Yemen and withdrawn its staff, citing threats against European embassies in certain areas of Sana’a.

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