Yemen braces for Al Qaeda reprisals over army offensive

SANAA — Yemeni security forces were on high alert Saturday for more Al Qaeda reprisals over an offensive against them, after militants killed five presidential guards and ambushed the defence minister’s convoy.

The interior ministry said security in Sanaa had been boosted, particularly around government installations and embassies.

It said new checkpoints had been set up around the city to “block all terrorist acts” and that security forces were working “around the clock... to preserve security in the capital”.

There were also fears of reprisals in the central province of Baida, one of three where the army has been pursuing an offensive against jihadists since April 29.

On Friday, suspected Al Qaeda militants attacked the presidential palace, killing five guards and triggering a fierce gunfight as they hit back because of the government offensive.

President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi was not in the palace when gunmen attacked a checkpoint outside the compound, a security source told AFP.

Hadi, whose government has stepped up its war on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — a merger between the network’s Saudi and Yemeni branches — uses the palace only for meetings.

Sanaa has been on alert for days, and tensions rose after the army said troops had entered Azzan, a jihadist bastion in southern Shabwa province, prompting the United States to close its Sanaa embassy on Thursday.

That night, security forces killed Al Qaeda commander Shayef Mohammed Said al-Shabwani, one of AQAP’s most wanted leaders suspected of masterminding the abduction of Western diplomats, in a firefight near the presidential palace.

On Friday, Defence Minister Mohamed Nasser Ahmad and two senior security officers escaped unscathed when gunmen ambushed their convoy as they returned from a tour of the south.

Ahmad has vowed to crush Al Qaeda in Yemen, and on Friday told troops in Shabwa and Abyan that the offensive will continue until “the last criminal and evil” militant is killed.

Also on Friday, the US State Department said that two US embassy officers shot dead two armed civilians who tried to kidnap them last month in Sanaa, and were removed from Yemen shortly afterwards.

The New York Times said a lieutenant colonel with the elite US Joint Special Operations Command and a Central Intelligence Agency officer were involved in the April 24 shooting.

At the time, Yemen’s defence ministry indicated a foreigner had shot dead two gunmen who had tried to abduct him.

AQAP is regarded by Washington as Al Qaeda’s most dangerous franchise and has been linked to failed terror plots in the United States.

Yemen’s army says its offensive against AQAP strongholds in the contiguous provinces of Shabwa, Abyan and Baida has inflicted heavy losses on the jihadists.

On Monday, the interior ministry warned that “huge losses” in jihadist ranks “will push Al Qaeda to commit hysterical and desperate acts”.

Officials said Saturday the situation was relatively calm in Shabwa and Abyan, but state news agency Saba reported without giving details that “seven terrorists” had been killed in the two provinces.

A tribal source said that as government forces close in on AQAP strongholds in Shabwa and Abyan, the militants had taken refuge in Al-Kur, a mountainous area linking them and Baida.