Militant with Chechen links dies in Yemen army assault

AFP/Aden

Five suspected Al Qaeda members, including a commander with Chechen links, and two soldiers were killed yesterday in an army offensive against jihadists in the south, official sources said. “Four Al Qaeda fighters were killed and nine wounded” in clashes with soldiers in Abyan province, a military source on the ground said. During fighting in the Sanaj region between Maajala and Wadi Dheiqa, an Al Qaeda bastion, “two soldiers were killed and four more wounded”, the source said. Earlier, the defence ministry announced the death in Maajala of a foreign fighter it said was from Chechnya. Abu Islam al-Shishani was the second foreign jihadist to be killed this week since the military launched its latest offensive on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). News of Shishani’s death came as officials blamed AQAP for a suicide bombing at an intelligence post that wounded two guards, and after gunmen killed an army officer in Aden. AQAP, regarded by the United States as the global jihadist network’s most dangerous franchise, has been the target of an intensifying drone war this year that has killed dozens. On Friday, an AQAP leader, Qassem al-Rimi, threatened to strike back at any party involved in the drone campaign and denied that foreigners made up the bulk of the group’s jihadists. Shishani was killed “during military operations... against terrorist elements in Abyan” province, said a statement posted on the defence ministry website 26sep.net. He had reportedly fought against Russian forces in Chechnya before moving to Yemen to join AQAP, a merger of the network’s Yemeni and Saudi branches. On Friday, the defence minister announced that a foreign jihadist commander, Abu Muslim al-Uzbeki, had been killed in clashes, also in Abyan province. A security official said Uzbeki travelled in 2011 from Uzbekistan to Yemen, where he was named an AQAP leader in Abyan. The army’s ground offensive backed by warplanes is aimed at clearing the jihadists from their remaining strongholds in villages and smaller towns of Abyan and neighbouring Shabwa province. But the security forces have also experienced setbacks since the operation began. On Tuesday, jihadists ambushed a military convoy, killing 15 soldiers and capturing 15, three of whom were later executed. As the offensive gained pace, with officials reporting at least 30 suspected militants and more than 24 soldiers killed this week, the military came under attack elsewhere in the south. On Friday, gunmen shot dead an army officer as he came out of a grocery shop in Aden, the capital of southern Yemen which has seen a spike in attacks on security forces. Witnesses said yesterday the government campaign forced hundreds of people to flee combat zones in Abyan and Shabwa provinces. Also yesterday, a suicide bomber attacked a military intelligence post in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout province in southeast Yemen, wounding two guards.