People inspect the site of a bombing in Yemen's southern city of Jaar. [Stringer/Reuters]
Yemeni officials and citizens condemned the bombing Saturday (August 4th) in Jaar that killed more than 40 people and wounded as many as 45 others.
The victims were attending a wake for the nephew of Abdel Latif al-Sayed, leader of the popular committees in Jaar. Two of al-Sayed's brothers were killed in the attack.
The Defence Ministry announced Monday that the army and popular committees identified the al-Qaeda members responsible for the attack and arrested five suspects, including four leaders in the organisation. One arrested individual was wearing a woman's abaya.
On Tuesday, army personnel and members of pro-government popular committees raided a house in central Jaar looking for suspects. Two al-Qaeda fighters were killed and three others were wounded, AFP reported.
One of the three men arrested later died of his wounds, said Mohsin bin Jamila, a member of the town's local administration.
"The investigation revealed that the [bombing] attack involved an explosive device planted at the site of the wake in revenge for Abdel Latif al-Sayed's stances," Ahmed al-Rahwi, deputy governor of Abyan province, told Al-Shorfa.
Popular committees played a crucial role in expelling al-Qaeda from Jaar in June.
"The bombing was a terrorist act that struck the population of Jaar and surrounding areas like a thunderbolt in the most tragic sense," al-Rahwi said. "It was a terrorist act in every sense of the word."
Al-Rahwi said three of his escorts were killed in the incident.
Abdo al-Janadi, Yemen's deputy information minister, also condemned the attack, saying it targeted "peaceful citizens who were offering their condolences". He urged all organisations and political parties to denounce the incident.
"The Jaar incident is a heinous crime against humanity, and all people of conscience and the nation's honourable forces must fight this extremist ideology that brings tragic consequences and misery upon Yemenis," al-Janadi said.
"This incident will only strengthen the resolve of the Yemeni leadership, the government and the people to confront this terrorist organisation," he added.
Jamal Nasser al-Aqel, governor of Abyan province, described the incident as a "heinous terrorist bombing".
He spoke Monday during an evening Ramadan gathering in Zinjibar organised by the provincial co-ordinating committee for civil society organisations, saying acts committed by criminal and subversive elements violate all religious, ethical and human values and run contrary to Islam and Yemeni traditions.
"The crime created panic, fear and concern among people who are now afraid to go out to the market, congregate, or even go to the mosques out of fear that terrorists may have planted a bomb," Sheikh Nasr al-Shaabi of Jaar told Al-Shorfa.
"Al-Qaeda has revealed its true face," al-Shaabi said. "Last Ramadan, when it controlled Jaar and declared it an Islamic emirate, it offered dates and water to people who were fasting. But when it lost its emirate, it switched to bombs and explosive belts to add to the people's pain."
Hussein Abdullah Saeed, 45, a teacher in Jaar, said the incident increased the sense of fear and anxiety among people.
"A number of displaced people who returned to Jaar decided to go back to Aden or other provinces, renting houses or living with family members to preserve their lives and the lives of their families," he said.
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ميمون القليصي الهاشمي العدني
2012-9-2
My brothers, how many times did the Salafi scholars – starting with Sheikh Muqbil al-Wadaei, may God have mercy on him – talk about this organization and their dead leader, Bin Laden?! Yet no one listened to the advice except a few reasonable people. So, shall we learn and follow our scholars by abandoning the people of the parties, organizations and the associations that are wrapped with the destructive takfiri, i.e. declaring others as apostates, ideas like the associations of Islah, Ihsan, Hikma and Birr? O God, let us see the conditions of the people of delusion and deviation and make us followers of Islam, not heretics! O Amen!
عبدالكريم احمد
2012-8-15
One of these crimes that could be considered is trying to violate the dignity of the Yemeni citizen who defends himself, defends his dignity or defends his family, his wife, or any one of his children. The extremist and the terrorist operations were carried out by al-Qaeda and the Houthi rebellion movement as well as the acts of sabotage carried out by the elements of al-Qaeda. However, the proportion of recruits in these organizations increased and the African infiltrators into Yemen increased as well. The phenomenon of piracy at sea, which also belongs to al-Qaeda, emerged. There are three terrorist elements in Yemen, which are al-Qaeda, the elements of secession and the Houthis. In order to confront terrorism, we need to address the issues of poverty, underdevelopment, hunger, and unemployment, and provide jobs for the unemployed youths so that they would not join these terrorist groups. There must be security cooperation between Yemen and all sister Arab States. This will constitute a painful blow to al-Qaeda. Yemen must confront, in the war against terrorism, the terrorists and refer the terrorist suspects to immediate fair trial as well as accept the intellectual dialogue with the deceived and misled ones among those who had not committed terrorist acts.
سليمان عاطف
2012-8-15
Due to the major and the numerous crimes committed by the members of the group of al-Qaeda against the innocent people and against the Muslims among their Yemeni brothers, this extremist criminal organization is commiting offenses violating the principles of the holy religion of Islam. However, what al-Qaeda is doing in Yemen is too atrocious,where the group of al-Qaeda caused the destruction of the entire infrastructure of Yemen and distorted the international Yemeni reputation as they used improvised explosive device in Yemen with car bombs and explosive belts. Why are they doing all of this while they are bombing innocent and helpless people? These major crimes in Yemen headed by killing the innocent good lives and destroying the facilities without reason, and all of this through this regulation and its support of all the acts of vandalism and separation between the North and the South as well as killing the Yemenis in the North and the violation of the Yemeni State deliberately by fabricating civil wars between the Yemenis and its supporters inside the country which caused the hostility of the foreigners. The increase of the proportion of the crimes against the Yemenis was due to the bad treatment to acts and the reactions to the violations that occurred against the Yemeni citizens.
محمد سلمان
2012-8-13
The family is the first cornerstone in building sound societies. The soundness of any community depends, above all, on the righteousness of the families. The families are major determiner of the manners of the individuals. Indeed, people acquire the social values and standards through their families. They are first introduced to the social trends and through the communication with parents. Therefore, the atmosphere of the families that adopt the methods of socialization should be characterized by harmony, cohesion, understanding, calm, and especially awareness of all the dimensions of the social attitudes inside and outside the family. In so doing we preserve the social values and strengthen the principles of tolerance, the readiness to forgive others, the acceptance of diverged views and the total equality among the children. The latter should learn that young kids must respect the grownups and that the old should sympathize with the children. Everyone should treat the family members on equal footing so that the children grow up in a healthy environment, free from psychological disorders. Thus, our youth would stay away from the terrorist groups since they had developed a defensive mind based on freedom and dignity. The family education must be based on raising the awareness of the children.
فهد رمضان
2012-8-12
This proves that Al-Qaeda insists on continuing its war despite all the strikes that were directed against it during the recent period and this adds more responsibilities to the Yemeni security forces and the government. According to the journal published by the UAE’s Center for Studies, the recent bombing carries a dangerous message that Al-Qaeda terrorist organization still has the ability to be active and to carry out harmful operations that cause unrest and destruction everywhere in Yemen. Following the attack, The Yemeni president pledged to continue the war on the terrorist organizations irrespective of the sacrifices. This also shows the strong awareness about the threat of terrorism, represented in Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, to Yemen and its attempt to break away from the range of the current crisis to achieve the objectives of the transitional period as to the stability at all levels including the economic development and political stability. The objectives also include protecting the great Yemeni unction, which faces the strongest threats. The transitional period should also witness strengthening the internal Yemeni front because they suffered from many wounds and fractures during the past period.
ثائر حامد
2012-8-11
The terrorist attacks in Yemen and the attempt of the terrorists to take control of it have caused the security devices to process a new, qualified and successful security operation. However, these successful operations have generated the war between Al-Qaeda and the security forces. The recent operations, which have targeted the most important city of the terrorists, focus on Hathramawt in Yemen, where the security forces have succeed in directing a blow to Al-Qaeda, after they had gotten the secrets by which they were able to break through it. The Yemeni security forces have gleaned a great amount of information from the laptop that they found during one of the security raids, and which enabled the security forces to arrest many members. This has opened the way for them to gain control of Al-Qaeda and the terrorist attacks in Yemen. The hope in the security forces’ restoring security and stability to Yemen is great.
ايمن النجار
2012-8-10
The crimes of Al-Qaeda in Yemen can be summarized in some points. The most important points is the direct attack on the properties and looting money without right as well as raping women with force in front of their husbands. They also kill many children because they believe that the children would represent the coming generation, which would resist them because they would be filled with hatred as they saw their mothers, fathers, sisters, aunts being raped and killed in front of their eyes. Hence, the children would grow and thy would avenge all of what happened to their parents and all Muslims one day. the crimes of Al-Qaeda spread under the name of Islam, but Islam has no relationship with those terrorist organizations, which misunderstood or even misinterpret some teachings of Islam to serve their beliefs. Hence, this group focuses on destroying all the sensitive locations in Yemen and fomenting the sectarian strife among the Yemenis. Hence, beware of terrorism because it is a dangerous blight that cannot be easily treated unless the people themselves got rid of all the causes of disagreements and disputes, which must be ended immediately.
ابو سارة
2012-8-8
With every day that passes, the victims caused by the terrorist acts increases. Many of our youth have joined those movements to work with because they are victims of brainwashing by them. They recruit many young people who do not know anything under their slogan. The world has suffered from the Al-Qaeda’s crimes. They have worked in many instances on the persecution of the innocent citizens and they have applied the borders that were never among their powers because they do not have any authority on us. They are just human beings not responsible for us. We are better than them. We are Muslims who believe in Allah. We have not worked any day in hurting any person. Our religion has not taught us that violence is the language of dialogue. Our cohesion with each other must increase in order to stand in the face of those movements that are working on disintegrating us. We will resist and will not be afraid of them. We are stronger than them. All their crimes show their vulnerability. We pray to Allah to avenge all the criminals in this world.