Yemen: Besieging 80 Islamists in the mountains; tribal mediation, over al-Harithi issue

The military attack launched by the Yemeni forces in the mountainous areas in Abyan province against a group of armed Islamists, with the participation of tanks and helicopters besides reinforcements from the private forces was expanded.

This expansion was in parallel with a mediation effort of chieftains trying to convince the armed Islamists to surrender.

A high ranking military official said that the armed Islamists asked in return for their surrender to disclose the killers of the official in al-Qaida organization Salem Sinan al-Harithi who was assassinated by a plane for the American intelligence (CIA) in 2002.

The operation which is held in the southern Hatat mountain, 120 Km to the northern west of Aden, is led by the defense minister Lt. Gen. Abdullah Ali Elewayh. The operation aims at arresting 80 gunmen accused of attacking a medical caravan for the army last Saturday in Abyan province, according to a military official in a statement to the press who were invited to cover the news.

A security source said that Ahmad Abdul Nabi is the one who led the attackers and he is a Yemeni who arrived back from Afghanistan before the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The armed group includes member of al-Jihad and members of " The Islamic Abyan - Aden army" and al-Qaida supporters members, according to a military source. They are besieged in an area of a three kilometer diameter and the authorities expect they will surrender when food and water supplies expire.

The Yemeni army forces which is composed of 100 soldiers were reinforced by ten tanks, artillery and machine guns as well as helicopters.

In the past, Hatat area was a headquarters for the Islamic Aden- Abyan army. A small group of old veterans in Afghanistan. The Yemeni authorities confirm that this group is no longer in existence since the execution of its leader Abu al-Hassan al-Mihdar in 1999.