[Cabeça de Martelo]

Seis turistas espanhóis morreram num ataque atribuído à Al-Qaeda

Uma explosão no centro histórico da região de Marib, no nordeste do Iémen, matou pelo menos seis turistas espanhóis e um iemenita e fez sete feridos. As autoridades suspeitam da Al-Qaeda.
 
SIC

 Suspeita-se que que tenha sido um carro armadilhado que explodiu num local muito frequentado por turistas, por volta das 18h00 locais (16h00 em Lisboa).

As primeiras informações indicam que morreram seis turistas espanhóis e o seu motorista iemenita e ficaram feridas outras sete pessoas.

A agência Reuters adianta que as autoridades iemenitas suspeita da Al-Qaeda, já que o ataque acontece depois de a rede terrorista ter exigido a libertação dos seus militantes detidos no Iémen.

O Iémen, aliado dos Estados Unidos e país de origem da família de bin Laden, tem lançado sucessivas operações contra elementos suspeitos de pertencer à Al-Qaeda, após o 11 de Setembro.

É um dos países mais pobres do Mundo, onde vivem cerca de 20 milhões de pessoas.

http://sic.sapo.pt/online/noticias/mund ... +Iemen.htm

[Luso]

Limpe-se a esta, Zapatero da Aliança das Civilizações.

[SSK]

Is Al-Qaeda in Yemen Regrouping?

Jul. 02, 2007 - This article was originally published on May 22, 2007

By Gregory D. Johnsen (from Terrorism Focus, May 22, 2007) - In November 2002, the United States dealt a devastating blow to Al-Qaeda in Yemen when it assassinated Abu Ali al-Harithi with a missile from a Predator drone. One year later, in November 2003, Yemeni forces arrested al-Harithi's replacement, Muhammad al-Ahdal, on a tip from an al-Qaeda member. The two operations effectively crippled the organization, removing its head of operations and its chief financial officer. Yet, more recently, the group has been reorganizing itself and, once again, appears capable of carrying out attacks. On May 1 of this year, Al-Qaeda in Yemen told Yemeni correspondent Faysal Mukrim that it was preparing to strike certain officers within the country's security establishment, whom it accused of using torture against al-Qaeda suspects in Yemeni prisons (al-Hayat, May 1). As proof of the seriousness of its claims, Al-Qaeda in Yemen said that it was behind the March 29 assassination of Ali Mahmud Qasaylah, the chief criminal investigator in the central Yemeni governorate of Marib (al-Hayat, May 1). The unnamed source claimed that the assassination was in retaliation for Qasaylah's role in the attack on al-Harithi, which also occurred in Marib. Yemeni security forces denied that Qasaylah, who was transferred to Marib at the beginning of 2002, had anything to do with the operation that killed al-Harithi (al-Hayat, May 1).

Initially, al-Qaeda's claims were met with skepticism since they came more than a month after Qasaylah was killed and they were relayed through Mukrim, who is seen as close to the government and is not often the reporter of choice for militants in the country. They also followed calls by HOOD, a local human rights organization, and the Marib branch of the Islah party for an investigation into Qasaylah's death (al-Sawha.net, April 23; News Yemen, April 17). This led some to believe that Mukrim's sources were overreaching in an attempt to play on the unknown. Yet, in the weeks following the al-Qaeda claims, the Ministry of the Interior announced that it was looking for three men in connection with Qasaylah's death (http://almotamar.net/news, May 15).

Throughout mid-May, the Ministry of the Interior took out half-page ads in official newspapers, offering a reward of five million Yemeni riyals, roughly $25,000, for information leading to the capture of the three suspects: Naji Ali Salih Jardan, Ali Ali Nasir Doha and Abd al-Aziz Said Muhammad Jardan. To make matters worse for the government, the latter two suspects had been in prison from 2004-2006 on suspicion of being involved in transporting Yemenis to Iraq to fight against U.S.-led forces (News Yemen, December 24, 2005; News Yemen, March 24, 2006). Both Doha and Abd al-Aziz Said Muhammad Jardan were arrested in Yemen upon their return from Syria, where they claimed they were seeking medical treatment. Their eventual release has, as the wanted posters indicate, proven premature.

Qasaylah's death and the subsequent claim of responsibility by Al-Qaeda in Yemen suggest that the group is reforming with the help of members trained in Iraq and is returning to settle old scores. This could prove to be a dangerous revival of the security threat in Yemen.

Gregory D. Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
 

[Cabeça de Martelo]

É de todo lamentável a morte destas pessoas, lamento-o da mesma forma como lamentei a morte de um militar Português morto em Bali (um Pára-quedista que estava em missão em Timor).
São mortes sem sentido e sem quaisquer resultados práticos para as pessoas que o fizeram.