US drone strike kills 9 al-Qaida militants in Yemen, clashes in Sanaa leaves 12

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US drone strike kills 9 al-Qaida militants in Yemen, clashes in Sanaa leaves 12

dead

By Hamza Hendawi, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 46 minutes ago

...SANAA, Yemen - The United States has raised the tempo in its war against

al-Qaida in Yemen, killing nine of the terror group's militants in the second,

high-profile airstrike in as many weeks. The dead in the late Friday night

strike included the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, the prominent American-Yemeni

militant killed in a Sept. 30 strike.

Yemeni officials on Saturday attributed the recent U.S. successes against

al-Qaida to better intelligence from an army of Yemeni informers and

co-operation with the Saudis, Washington's longtime Arab allies.

The successes come even as Yemen falls deeper into turmoil, with President Ali

Abdullah Saleh clinging to power in the face of months of massive protests.

Saturday saw the worst bloodshed in weeks in the capital, Sanaa: At least 18

people were killed when Saleh's troops fired on protesters and clashed with

rivals. Witnesses estimated up to 300,000 people joined Saturday's

demonstrations, the largest in the capital in several months.

" Everyone with interests in Yemen, including al-Qaida and the Americans, is

raising the stakes at this time of uncertainty " said analyst Abdul-Bari Taher.

" The Americans are wasting no time to try and eliminate the al-Qaida threat

before the militants dig in deeper and cannot be easily dislodged. "

Also dead in the Friday airstrike in the southeastern province of Shabwa was

Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Banna, identified by the nation's Defence Ministry as

the media chief of the Yemeni branch of the al-Qaida.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch is known, is considered by the

U.S. the most dangerous of the terror network's affiliates after it plotted two

recent failed attacks on American soil. Its fighters and other Islamic militants

have taken advantage of Yemen's chaos to seize control of several cities and

towns in a southern province. That has raised American fears they can establish

a firmer foothold in the strategically located country close to the vast oil

fields of the Gulf and overlooking key shipping routes.

The U.S. airstrikes in Shabwa pointed to Washington's growing use of drones to

target al-Qaida militants in Yemen. The missile attacks appear to be part of a

determined effort to stamp out the threat from the group.

Yemeni officials familiar with the U.S. military drive against al-Qaida in Yemen

said a shift of strategy by the Americans was finally yielding results, with

human assets on the ground directly providing actionable intelligence to U.S.

commanders rather than relying entirely on Yemen's security agencies the

Americans had long considered inefficient or even suspected of leaking word on

planned operations.

They said there were as many as 3,000 informers on the U.S. payroll around the

country — some without even knowing it.

The Saudis, on the other hand, have traditionally kept an elaborate patronage

system and an information network in Yemen, their neighbour to the south. They

have for decades paid monthly stipends to key tribal leaders, military

commanders and politicians to secure their loyalty. They also paid ordinary

Yemenis to provide them with intelligence.

" The Saudis are making their information available to the Americans, " said one

of the defence officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because

they were not authorized to share the information. " Both them and the Americans

are broadening their co-operation without direct Yemeni involvement. "

Tribal elders in the area where Friday's strikes took place said the dead

included Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki, the 21-year-old son of Anwar al-Awlaki, a

Muslim preacher and savvy Internet operator who became a powerful al-Qaida

recruiting tool in the West and who was on a U.S. capture-or-kill list. The

elder al-Awlaki and another propagandist, Pakistani-American Samir Khan, were

killed in the Sept. 30 srike.

The tribal elders, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because they

feared reprisals, said four other members of the al-Awlaki clan and another

local militant were also killed in the same drone attack. There was no immediate

confirmation of the younger al-Awlaki's death from Yemeni authorities.

Security officials said the strike was one of five carried out overnight by

American drones on suspected al-Qaida positions in Shabwa and neighbouring Abyan

province in Yemen's largely lawless south. They said two more militants were

killed and 12 wounded in other strikes in the two provinces.

The first strike late Friday targeted a house in the Azan district of Shabwa,

but hit just after al-Qaida militants had a meeting in the building, security

officials and tribal elders said.

They said a second strike then targeted two sport utility vehicles in which the

seven were travelling, destroying the vehicles and leaving the men's bodies

charred. It was not clear whether other participants in the meeting were

targeted in separate strikes.

Yemen's al-Qaida offshoot has taken advantage of the political turmoil roiling

the country. Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than 30 years, has been

struggling to stay in power in the face of eight months of massive street

protests demanding his ouster and the defection to the opposition of key aides

and military commanders.

In Sanaa, forces loyal to Saleh opened up on protesters with assault rifles and

anti-aircraft guns, medical officials and witnesses said. The casualty figures —

12 dead and up to 300 wounded — were confirmed by Mohammed al-Qubati, director

of the field hospital set up at Change square, the name given to a central Sanaa

intersection that saw the birth of the eight-month-old, anti-Saleh uprising.

The medical officials requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak

to journalists.

In Sanaa's northern district of Hassaba, fighting between Saleh's forces on one

side and anti-regime tribesmen and renegade troops on the other killed two

civilians and four supporters of tribal chief Sadeq al-Ahmar, a one-time regime

ally who defected to the opposition in March. At least 13 people were wounded in

the fighting.

A three-story building housing an independent TV station, Al-Saeedah, in the

area took a direct hit, destroying the channel's equipment and studios,

according to a statement by the management. The privately-owned station went off

the air.

Khaled al-Ansi, a prominent leader of the protest movement, blamed the death of

the proetsters on opposition parties, arguing that their acceptance of a

U.S.-backed settlement plan proposed by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbours gave Saleh

license to kill protesters at will. The plan provides for the Yemeni leader to

step down and hand over power to his deputy in exchange for immunity.

" The political parties are participants in the killings, " said al-Ansi. " The

immunity from prosecution is giving Saleh a temptation to kill more of us. "