Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaeda-16

Intel to Rent C de Waart [email protected] In Confidence

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaeda-16

‘HOLY WAR’ AGAINST ‘NEW PHAROAH’ SISI

Al-Qaida "is much stronger on the ground today," said Katherine Zimmerman, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The coalition forces, particularly Saudi Arabia, are willing to risk strengthening al-Qaida in the process of defeating the Houthis

The Arab world, which has been anxiously watching all of this for years now, is coming to some hard conclusions. Assad is finished — this much is clear.

So who’s next? If the answer is not the five-dozen moderates trained by the Pentagon, it will be one of the two extremist militias who control the most territory in Syria: Isis and al-Qa’eda (called by its local name Jabhat al-Nusra). A horrible choice, you might argue, but for many it’s the only choice.

The FBI director says the Islamic State group's effort to inspire troubled Americans to kill at home has become more of a terror threat to the U.S. than an external attack by Al-Qaida.

A former Egyptian army officer suspected of masterminding the assassination of a top Egyptian prosecutor has released a propaganda video calling for Islamists to declare holy war on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, calling him a “new pharoah” who has overrun the mostly-Muslim country with “sorcerers” looking to change “our religion.”

EGYPTIAN ARMY OFFICER TURNED TOP JIHADI CALLS FOR ‘HOLY WAR’ AGAINST ‘NEW PHAROAH’ SISIby FRANCES MARTEL24 Jul 20157 A former Egyptian army officer suspected of masterminding the assassination of a top Egyptian prosecutor has released a propaganda video calling for Islamists to declare holy war on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, calling him a “new pharoah” who has overrun the mostly-Muslim country with “sorcerers” looking to change “our religion.”Hisham al-Ashmawy, identified in the video as Abu Omar al-Muhajir al-Masri, “Emir of the Al-Murabiteen group,” appears only in photos in the audio message, dressed in an Egyptian military uniform. He calls for Muslims to rebel against Sisi and laments that Egypt has been “overpowered by the new pharoah.” “All of you must come together to confront your enemy. Do not fear them, but fear Allah if you are truly believers,” Reuters quotes the message as saying.“Egypt is overpowered by the new pharaoh, and by his soldiers and sorcerers, so that he can follow the path of his ancestor Pharaoh,” the message states, adding that Sisi uses “the most severe forms of torture and affliction against the Muslims” and “the magic of media for his lies and deceit [to change] the religion and facts in the minds of the people.” al-Ashmawy declares Sisi an enemy of “our religion,” despite Sisi himself being Muslim.The message was posted on July 20, in time for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.al-Ashmawy is believed to be operating with a group loyal to al-Qaeda, the Al Murabitoon. The Long War Journal reports that al-Ashmawy was “likely once a member of Ansar Bayt al Maqdis (ABM),” a group that operates in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula and has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Upon doing so, it seems, al-

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Ashmawy remained loyal to al Qaeda and took the leadership role at Al Murabitoon.While no group has taken responsibility for the assassination of top prosecutor Hisham Barakat, al-Ashmawy is a prime suspect. The attack was the assassination of the most prominent figure in Egyptian government since Sisi took power, indicating that, while the Islamic State has ramped up attacks in Sinai and become as significant a problem to Egypt as Muslim Brotherhood followers still loyal to deposed President Mohamed Morsi, al Qaeda factions remain just as dangerous. Some speculate that the message serves as fundraising fodder as much as terrorist propaganda to scare Egyptian officials. Nabil Na’im, a former leader of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya during the 1990’s, told the news outlet Ahram that he believes the audio message is partially a reminder to would-be funders that Al Qaeda loyalists are still around, still potent, and waiting to receive money that would otherwise go to the Islamic State. “You can see on social media a fight between IS supporters and Al-Qaeda supporters over whether Ashmawy belongs to any of the groups,” he explains. “IS supporters are trying to state that he belongs to them in order to keep the possibility of more funds and money flowing especially after he conducted an operation in Cairo.”Sisi, the former chief of Egypt’s armed forces, has vowed to eradicate all jihadist elements from Egypt, starting with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. In response, the Muslim Brotherhood issued an official declaration of war, calling for Egyptians to “come out in rebellion and in defense of your country” to “destroy the citadels of his [Sisi’s] oppression and tyranny.” The Islamic State has also called for attacks in Egypt but, true to form, has focused on pre-Islamic Egypt. ISIS “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called it a “religious duty” to destroy the Pyramids at Giza, the Great Sphinx, and all of Egypt’s pre-Islamic monuments. While Sisi has been a lightning rod for jihadist ire since he became Egypt’s head of state, he angered Islamists most severely in January, issuing a speech calling for a reformation within Islam. Islam today, he said, “is antagonizing the entire world” and becoming “a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.” This, he demanded, must end.C: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is willing to talk about the elephant in the room, and he didn’t mince words when he spoke on the topic of Islamic violence in Cairo on New Year’s Day:It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible! That thinking – I am not saying “religion” but “thinking” – that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the centuries, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world! Is it possible that 1.6 billion people should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants – that is 7 billion – so that they themselves may live?

Impossible! “Muslim Brotherhood Turn To Terrorism Against Al-Sisi Regime: Threats Of

Attacks Against Foreign Diplomats, Workers In Egypt On Turkey-Based MB TV, Calls For Jihad And For Assassination Of Al-Sisi, Regime Heads,” MEMRI, February 20, 2015: The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has recently escalated its statements and activity against the Egyptian regime, to the extent of explicitly calling for using terrorism and violence against it, and even for assassinating President ‘Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi. These calls included an MB communique calling on movement activists to prepare for a lengthy and uncompromising jihad and to hunger for a martyr’s death; clear incitement to





violence on MB TV channels broadcasting from Turkey; and an ultimatum also on a Turkey-based MB channel, to foreign workers to leave Egypt by February 20, 2015 and to foreign diplomats by February 28, 2015 or else be targeted for attack. On January 29, 2015, a broadcaster on the Turkey-based MB-linked channel Rabea TV read out “Communiqué No. 7 From the Leadership of the Revolution Youth,” which called on Arab and Western foreign nationals to leave Egypt immediately and stated that those who are not gone by February 11, 2015 could become a target of attacks by the revolutionary retribution movements. The statement also called on all foreign firms to finish their work in the country and leave by February 20, 2015, and on all diplomats and ambassadors to leave by February 28, 2015, lest they be targeted by the rebels. In addition, it notified all tourists planning on visiting Egypt to cancel their plans, claiming that they were currently unwelcome there. The statement urged countries that supported the “coup” to cease their support within a month at most, otherwise all their interests in the Middle East would be targeted

3 Aug 2013, "The crusaders, the seculars, the Americanized army, (former President Hosni) Mubarak's thugs and some members of Islamic parties with the support of Gulf money and American plotting, all agreed to topple Mohamed Morsy's government," he says. Those behind Morsy's ouster, the message states, wanted a "secular, pro-American president to rule Egypt so they can continue with their plotting -- along with the Americans and Zionists -- to divide Egypt, just like what happened in Sudan." A message thought to be from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri criticizes the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy and urges Muslims to stand together to prevent Egypt from being divided.

Former Egyptian special forces officer leads Al MurabitoonBY THOMAS JOSCELYN & CALEB WEISS | July 23, 2015

A jihadist group calling itself Al Murabitoon has released a video featuring a former Egyptian special forces officer named Hisham Ali Ashmawi (also known as Abu Omar al Muhajir al Masri) as its emir. He is pictured in his Egyptian military uniform (See the screen shot above.) Ashmawi’s organization is loyal to al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri. Al Murabitoon’s video, which was first obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, opens with a video clip of Zawahiri saying that the jihadists “must engage in the battle of rhetoric just as” they engage “in the battle of arms and ammunition.”Ashmawi then speaks in Arabic for the remainder of the production, calling on Muslims to wage jihad and “confront” their “enemy.” He connects Al Murabitoon’s fight to the jihadists’ global cause, citing the “wounds” supposedly suffered in Burma, Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Egypt. Al Murabitoon’s emir focuses much of his remarks on his homeland. “Egypt is overpowered by the new pharaoh, [President Abdel Fattah el] Sisi, and by his soldiers and sorcerers, so that he can follow the path of his ancestor Pharaoh,” Ashmawi says, according to SITE’s translation. He accuses Sisi of using “the most severe forms of torture and affliction against the Muslims” and employing “the magic of media for his lies and deceit [to change] the religion and facts in the minds of the people.”Accused of taking part in attacks on Egyptian officialsAshmawi reportedly served in the Egyptian military until either 2009 or 2011 (There is a discrepancy in Egyptian accounts.)Egyptian officials have accused him of being involved in a string of high-profile attacks





since he joined the jihadists. The Long War Journal’s analysis of those operations reveals that he was likely once a member of Ansar Bayt al Maqdis (ABM), which was affiliated with al Qaeda prior to a series of leadership losses.ABM’s surviving Sinai leadership pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State, in November 2014. But part of the organization remained loyal to al Qaeda and it is possible that Ashmawi represents this faction.In late June, Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s chief prosecutor, was killed by a car bomb in Cairo. Thus far, no jihadist group has claimed responsibility for the assassination. But Egyptian authorities say that Ashmawi was behind the operation. Barakat is the most senior government official to be killed since the jihadist insurgency was launched inside Egypt in 2013, according to The New York Times.Barakat was not the first Egyptian official targeted by Ashmawi. He is also suspected of masterminding the attempted assassination of Mohammad Ibrahim, who was then Egypt’s interior minister, in 2013. The plot against Ibrahim reveals a number of intriguing connections between Ashmawi and al Qaeda’s global network.A suicide bomber attempted to kill Ibrahim on September 5, 2013. ABM claimed responsibility just days later in a statement posted online. ABM followed up with a video honoring the would-be assassin, Walid Badr. The video honoring Badr made it clear that ABM considered itself part of al Qaeda’s network at the time.Like Ashmawi, Badr had been an Egyptian military officer before defecting to the jihadists’ cause. They both waged jihad in Syria as well.According to ABM’s biography for Badr, he fought in Syria “until Allah destined him to return to Egypt once again, to fulfill his wish that he always wanted in carrying out a martyrdom-seeking operation.” Egyptian authorities also connected Badr to a cadre of jihadists who were trained and fought for the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, and other groups.According to Al Watan, an Egyptian news site, Egypt’s interior ministry alleges that Ashmawi traveled to Syria in April 2013 to receive training “on manufacturing explosives and combat operations.” This means he was trained in Syria just months prior to the attempt on Ibrahim’s life.Egyptian officials have also said that Mohammed Jamal, an imprisoned al Qaeda operative, has admitted that Badr received training in one of Jamal’s camps in the Sinai. Jamal was attempting to form his own branch of al Qaeda in Egypt and Libya prior to his arrest in late 2012.Assuming that Ashmawi colluded with Badr in the plot against Ibrahim, as is alleged, then this raises the possibility that Ashmawi worked with Jamal as well.Al Murabitoon in North and West AfricaIt is not clear what relationship, if any, the group has to the other “Al Murabitoon,” an al Qaeda-affiliated organization that operates in North and West Africa. Al Murabitoon was the name given to the joint venture formed by Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s al Mulathameen Brigade and Ahmed al Tilemsi’s Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) after they merged in August 2013.Their combined entity was led by another Egyptian, Abu Bakr al Muhajir, who was a representative of al Qaeda’s senior leadership. Al Muhajir was killed by French forces in April 2014. Tilemsi, who served as Al Murabitoon’s emir after al Muhajir’s demise, was killed during a French special forces raid in December 2014.But Belmokhtar is still alive, despite American-led attempts to locate and kill him. Al Jazeera reported earlier today that Belmokhtar has released his own statement saying that he is now in charge of his Al Murabitoon. If the statement is genuine, then this suggests there are two Al Murabitoon groups. But there is some uncertainty as of this writing.





C: Previous reported, The enemy's enemy: how Arab states have turned to al-Qa’edaFear of Isis is leading the Arab states to lend support to the lesser of two evilsAhmed Rashid 18 July 2015After plunging Syria into five years of a bloody civil war that has killed 300,000 and displaced 10 million, Bashar al-Assad is preparing for the endgame. He has been digging a bunker for himself, creating an enclave in the mountains around the coastal city of Latakia where his community, the Alawites, are in a majority. The Iranians are helping him set up this new retreat, but his hope of hanging on to Syria is dying. The question being asked in the region is not whether he’ll survive, but who will run Damascus once he falls — and what will happen should the country be split along ethnic and sectarian lines.When considering the future, Syrian moderate rebel groups don’t feature much in the equation. They have little standing in the pecking order because the US and the Arabs have failed to support them. Ash Carter, the US defence secretary, stunned the Senate last week when he admitted that the Pentagon had trained just 60 moderate Syrians to fight Isis — a far cry from the planned 5,400 announced last year. Meanwhile, in Iraq, the contingent of 3,500 American soldiers dispatched to train the Iraqi army have ended up training only 2,600 Iraqi soldiers. This is clearly no way to win a war — either against Isis, or the Assad regime.The Arab world, which has been anxiously watching all of this for years now, is coming to some hard conclusions. Assad is finished — this much is clear. So who’s next? If the answer is not the five-dozen moderates trained by the Pentagon, it will be one of the two extremist militias who control the most territory in Syria: Isis and al-Qa’eda (called by its local name Jabhat al-Nusra). A horrible choice, you might argue, but for many it’s the only choice.The Arab Gulf states and Turkey have already made up their mind. They are heavily arming, funding and talking to al-Qa’eda, regarding it as a safer bet than Isis. It might once have seemed unimaginable but Isis has surpassed even al-Qa’eda in the brutal horrors it inflicts on its victims.So could al-Qa’eda, once considered the most deadly terrorist organisation in the world, end up with their own state; as masters of the caliphate, with the support of their neighbours? And if so, how on earth did we reach such a surreal and sorry state of affairs?The first thing to note is that neither Washington nor London have any enthusiasm for backing al-Qa’eda. Its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remains on the USA hit list and there’s a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture. Backing al-Qa’eda is too bitter a pill for the West, with the memories of 9/11 and 7/7 so vivid. So it’s easy to see why US diplomats are appalled by the turn of events in Syria. But if the Obama administration is not prepared to deploy troops on the ground to tackle Isis, it cannot criticise its own allies (such as Saudi Arabia) if they want to cosy up to al-Qa’eda.





The West offers no decent alternative plan. Its policy on the Middle East has been riven by contradictions, and characterised by a lack of commitment and a state of denial. So it’s the Middle Eastern states that have started calling the shots (as arguably they must do) and it’s they who have chosen al-Qa’eda as their new ally. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Gulf Emirates are supporting al-Qa’eda with arms, money and a strategic dialogue. While the Gulf states are following Saudi Arabia’s lead and are also petrified of Isis terrorist hits in their vulnerable city states, such as the recent beach attack in Tunisia and the several Isis bomb blasts in Saudi Arabia, the Turks are deeply concerned that Syrian Kurds will carve out a separate state for themselves and draw Turkey’s own Kurds in.But its not just al-Qa’eda in Syria; other al-Qa’eda offshoots are also being redefined as friends, not foes. In Yemen, Washington has long pursued a drone campaign against the group known as al-Qa’eda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has included the recent killing of Nasir al-Wuhayshi, its leader. Washington believes that AQAP is still trying to target the US mainland. Yet many of America’s Arab allies are now essentially siding with AQAP in a Saudi-led war against Iran. Why? Because, as so many countries learn in wartime, the enemy of one’s enemy can become one’s ally. No matter how ugly the enemy. These Arab states consider Iran as a larger national security threat than AQAP.

So, on the battlefields of Syria and Yemen, the Arab states are not only opposing American attacks on al-Qa’eda but actively offering support to its leader, al-Zawahiri. So two quite separate super-wars are now being fought.

The first is the war waged by the US and its western allies in an attempt to defeat al-Qa’eda and Isis in Syria and Yemen. Significantly the Arab states are taking no part in this war and providing the Americans with no intelligence.

The second war is being fought by all the regional Arab states and Turkey — against Assad and other Iranian-backed forces in the region, as well as Isis. In this war, the Arab states openly avoid bombing or attacking al-Qa’eda in Syria and AQAP — and, indeed, provide both with logistical support. This is because both al-Qa’eda offshoots have now declared aims which are shared by the Arab states: they want to topple the Assad regime and oppose Iran.Things have been moving so fast that any western policy forged more than a year ago is now hopelessly out of date. Not only has Isis come from nowhere to run a chunk of territory the size of Great Britain — in both Iraq and Syria — but it can claim to have terrorist hit squads in a dozen countries stretching from Tunisia to Pakistan. Isis now has affiliated militant groups in at least 11 countries, including Nigeria and Russia. As the newspapers document daily, Isis is also adept at grooming and recruiting young western Muslims — from Luton to Lagos — and persuading them to join the jihad. It is succeeding in its state-building project and rapidly adapting to change.But while the world’s focus has been on Isis and its stunning transformation, the equally dramatic changes in al-Qa’eda have barely been scrutinised. Although depleted by years of drone strikes, it is still a major presence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It continues to inspire Afghan and Pakistani militants, who provide sanctuaries to keep its leadership alive. And unlike Isis, which demands absolute subjugation of the inhabitants of any territory it conquers (‘surrender or be executed’), it is cooperating with other anti-Assad groups. Al-Qa’eda recently joined the ‘Army of Conquest’, an Islamist alliance of rebel militias in northern Syria.While Isis depends on foreign recruits, fighters for al-Nusra, al-Qa’eda’s Syrian arm, are almost wholly Syrian — making them more committed to Syria’s future. They have





toned down their aims of implementing a brutal version of Islamic law. Most significantly, in recent interviews, al-Nusra leaders have vowed not to attack targets in the West. This is quite a departure from Osama bin Laden’s concept of ‘global jihad’, and a new leaning towards more ‘nationalist jihadism’.Some reports suggest that al–Zawahiri has even called off attacks on the US. If true, this shows a very un-Isis-like ability to put vendetta and revenge to one side for the sake of a more enticing goal. It’s true that al-Zawahiri loathes America, all the more because his wife and two children were killed in a drone strike. Yet he is proving able to play the long game. Al-Nusra’s leader, Abu Mohammed al’Julani, recently told Al Jazeera that ‘the instructions that we have are not to use al-Sham [Syria] as a base to launch attacks on the West or Europe — so as not to muddy the current war’.It’s not just talk. Al-Qa’eda most dramatically demonstrated its new soft line when AQAP seized the Yemeni province of Hadramut this spring. It inflicted little damage, executed nobody, declined to run the local government and instead installed a council of elders to govern.How long would this new less violent attitude last? Nobody knows. Perhaps it is just tactics to win support on the ground. It might only become really clear when it’s too late. The Arabs may be right to conclude that there are at least some grounds for thinking that al-Qa’eda is evolving.However the real test will be whether al-Qa’eda will truly tolerate minorities and let other sorts of Muslims exist, as and when they gain power? One indicator is Afghanistan, where al-Qa’eda and their Taleban allies have not attacked or massacred Afghan Shias since 11 September 2001. Before the US invasion they did so openly. But it is too early to say what al-Qa’eda’s long-term attitude to minorities will be. Meanwhile, Arab states have shown little sympathy for non-Muslim minorities and Shias when they are being attacked by Isis.Things are now moving fast. A relationship is evolving and formal talks between the Arab states and al-Qa’eda may soon take place without the West at the table. It’s a strategic decision: the Arabs regard an extremist victory in Syria as inevitable so they have decided to go with al-Qa’eda as the lesser of the two evils — especially if that evil is willing to resist Iran. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, since he came to the throne in January, has pursued a far more aggressive policy toward Iran and Syria. For the US and Europe it will be extremely difficult in terms of domestic politics and national security to strike a relationship with al-Qa’eda, but ultimately that may be the only choice, especially if the West’s Arab allies are going ahead.Just a few years ago, the ‘war on terror’ was defined as extinguishing al-Qa’eda. Now, for many of our Arab allies, it means shoring up al-Qa’eda and praying that they’re not as bad as had once been believed. One thing in all this murky double-dealing is clear: the US and Britain are paying a bitter price for refusing to remove Assad when they genuinely had the chance four years ago. Acting has its risks, but failing to act has its consequences too — as we will all now find out.Ahmed Rashid is the best selling author of numerous books on militant Islam. His latest book is Pakistan on the Brink - The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

22 Jul, The Defense Department says that Muhsin al Fadhli was killed in an airstrike on July 8 in Syria. Al Fadhli was a leader in the so-called "Khorasan Group," a cadre of al Qaeda veterans who have been plotting attacks agains the West. Prior to relocating to Syria, al Fadhli headed al Qaeda's network inside Iran. A senior al-Qaeda operative who reportedly was given advance notice of the September 11 attacks has been killed in an air strike in Syria, United States officials said.Muhsin al-Fadhli, who the US says headed the so-called Khorasan group of al-Qaeda





operatives, was killed in an air strike on July 8 as he travelled in a vehicle near Sarmada in Syria's Idlib province, said Captain Jeff Davis, the Pentagon's director of press operations."Al-Fadhli was the leader of a network of veteran al-Qaeda operatives, sometimes called the Khorasan Group, who are plotting external attacks against the United States and our allies," Davis said in a statement. "He was a senior al-Qaeda facilitator who was among the few trusted al-Qaeda leaders that received advanced notification of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "Al-Fadhli was also involved in terrorist attacks that took place in October 2002, including against US Marines on Faylaka Island in Kuwait and on the French ship MV Limburg. His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of al-Qaeda against the United States and our allies and partners."It is not the first time that al-Fadhli has been reported killed by the US. While al Fadhli’s death would be a blow to al Qaeda’s network, other veterans remain active in Syria. For example, Sanafi al Nasr is a leader in the “Khorasan Group.” According to US intelligence officials, al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri ordered trusted operatives from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, and North Africa to relocate to Syria. Some of them were trained by Ibrahim Asiri, an expert bomb maker who has designed sophisticated explosive devices for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

FBI chief: ISIS bigger threat to U.S. than Al-QaidaJames Comey's remarks signal a deepening concern about the impact of the Islamic State's effort to inspire terrorist violence.By The Associated Press | Jul. 23, 2015 AP - The FBI director says the Islamic State group's effort to inspire troubled Americans to kill at home has become more of a terror threat to the U.S. than an external attack by Al-Qaida. FBI Director James Comey told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum that the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has seen success in recent months after a yearlong social media campaign to radicalize disaffected Americans and Europeans. He said the FBI had made a number of arrests over the last eight weeks of people who had been radicalized and has hundreds of investigations pending. Comey's remarks signal a deepening concern about the impact of the Islamic State's effort to inspire terrorist violence. As recently as September, senior U.S. intelligence officials were downplaying the group's capacity to attack the U.S.

Al-Qaida gets a chance to govern under cover of Yemen warBy Nafeesa Syeed and Mohammed Hatem, Bloomberg News DUBAI, 22 Jul United Arab Emirates — In the port city of Mukalla in southern Yemen, al-Qaida is in charge. Its militants roam the streets, ordering women to cover their faces and banning shops from displaying lingerie. The jihadist group, whose local affiliate al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula already used Yemen as a base for attacks, has seized the chance to emulate its Islamic State spinoff by holding territory and governing it. The advance has been made possible by a civil war that shifted the priorities of Yemen's power-brokers. While the U.S. continues to target jihadists in Yemen with drone strikes, its allies -- the internationally recognized government, and its sponsor Saudi Arabia -- are more preoccupied with regaining control of the country from Shiite Houthi rebels.Al-Qaida "is much stronger on the ground today," said Katherine Zimmerman, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The coalition forces, particularly Saudi Arabia, are willing to risk strengthening al-Qaida in the process of defeating the Houthis. A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Yemen, which lies adjacent to some of the world's busiest oil shipping routes, since March in a bid to





reinstate President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi, driven into exile by the Houthis.It claimed its first major breakthrough in recent days, as government troops with Saudi air support regained control of the southern city of Aden. Two aid ships arrived there on Tuesday, and officials said they marked the start of a nationwide relief effort.Elsewhere in the south, the fight against the Houthis has brought al-Qaida to the fore.The group seized Mukalla in April, looting the town's central bank branch and freeing hundreds of inmates from its prison. It has also burned down Sufi shrines and markets that sold qat, a mild narcotic leaf popular in Yemen, according to Mohammed Ali, a military officer and local resident."All state institutions and banks are closed and employees are stuck -- no police stations, no prosecutions, business activities have stopped," Ali said by phone. The militants moved into Mukalla with support from local tribesmen, dubbing themselves the "sons of Hadramaut," the province of which Mukalla is the capital, and promising to defend it against the Houthis.By joining that fight, the jihadist group "has been able to mobilize a greater degree of sympathy," said Patricia Letayf, an analyst at research company Control Risks in Dubai. Instead of being stigmatized as a terrorist group, it has become accepted by some Yemenis, especially in the south, as a useful ally against the northern-based Houthis.The Houthis pledged to step up the fight against al-Qaida when they took control of Sana'a in September. They have also accused Hadi's government of secretly aiding the jihadists.The U.S. has identified Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as the group most likely to hit Western targets. It was behind the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane in 2009, and has also struck in neighboring Saudi Arabia. For much of the past decade, Yemen's government received U.S. training, carried out raids against al-Qaida and provided the U.S. with a base for armed drone missions. While the drone strikes continue -- last month AQAP leader Nasir al-Wahishi was killed -- the U.S. now lacks a stable local ally, though it also has a base in Djibouti, just across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. In Yemen, "our partner is in shambles," said Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute. Al-Qaida's gains are a concern because "U.S. airstrikes are not going to be able to dislodge a governing organization."Islamic State has gained support in Yemen too, claimed responsibility for several attacks including mosque bombings in March that killed about 140 people. Yet while the newcomer has eclipsed al-Qaida elsewhere, in Yemen the older group predominates.The longer Yemen remains at war, "the more these groups will prosper and take more territory and put their stamp on it," said Matthew Henman, manager of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre in London. In Mukalla, al-Qaida didn't initially seek to impose on the civilian population, said Naser Baqazquz, a political activist. Gradually, it began to do so -- outlawing cigarette sales, putting jihadist videos on television, taking charge of imports and exports, and setting up a security force that patrols the streets to apply Islamic law. Ali, the local army officer, said: "They have killed life here."




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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaeda-16