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Yemen Says it's Cracking Down on Terror, Not Particular Tribes
SANAA, Dec. 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul Kader Bajammal warned Friday against any attempt to exploit the ongoing hunt for suspected fighters from the al-Qaeda network to undermine national unity, news agencies reported.
"The government is cracking down on terror, not on particular tribes," he was quoted by the official SABA news agency as saying. "Any political party or political or social group that tries to break with the national consensus [to combat terrorism] would be looking for ways to sow dissension and undermine national unity."
The security forces' current operation targeted "terrorists and outlaws" and was not aimed at "creating enmities" with certain tribes, Bajammal said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"The hunt for elements involved in terrorist activities and those who harbor them in no way aims at creating enmities with certain tribes in some Yemeni regions," he added. "The battle is solely against terrorists and outlaws, and all [Yemenis] must strive to consolidate state authority in all parts of the country."
This would bring "all social forces under the law and consequently achieve equality, justice and social peace," the Yemeni premier concluded.
For two weeks, security forces have combed the provinces of Marib and Shabwa, in search of three Yemenis believed to be ranking members of al-Qaeda. Much of the area east of Sanaa, as well as Al-Juf northeast of the capital, is controlled by heavily armed tribes.
A military official told AFP that at least 22 people, all but four from the government side, were killed in clashes between security forces and armed tribesmen on Tuesday.
A senior tribal source said 13 government troops and four tribesmen died Tuesday when army and police units fired mortars into Al-Hosun village in the Marib province, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, igniting a gun and tank battle.
Another 18 soldiers and seven tribesmen were wounded and taken to Sanaa for treatment, he said.
In Washington, senior State Department officials privately confirmed that Yemen had been provided with a list of "individuals and groups" connected with bin Laden to be moved against, the British daily newspaper,
The Independent, reported.
Yemen has been identified by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a potential target, along with Somalia and Sudan, as the United States continues to try to weed out Al-Qaeda operatives outside Afghanistan.
The United States has long identified Yemen - the birthplace of bin Laden's father - as a country with Al-Qaeda cells. The network is thought to be responsible for the bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole while it was docked at the southern Yemeni port of Aden in October last year, in which 17 U.S. sailors died.
Yemeni officials said Tuesday's operation was likely related to the list presented to Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh on November 27 while meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House.
Many Al-Qaeda members are reportedly on the run from Afghanistan after U.S.-backed Afghan opposition forces routed the Taliban regime which sheltered Arab fighters and bin Laden, who is wanted for the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States.
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