Al-Qaeda's wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for Sept. 15 attacks on oil facilities in the Arab state and vowed more strikes against the US and its allies.
"Let the Americans and their allies among the worshippers of the cross and their apostate aides ... know that these operations are only the first spark and that what is coming is more severe and bitter," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
The authenticity of the statement posted on a Web site used by Islamist militant groups could not be verified. The statement, believed to be the first posting by Yemen's branch of al-Qaeda, was dated Ramadan 20, which corresponds to Oct. 13.
PHOTO: EPA
A US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said analysts were working to try to verify the authenticity of the posting.
"We know there is now some sort of organization that calls itself al-Qaeda Yemen," the US official said. "We think they've been trying to get this up on a Web site for a while."
Yemen had said that four bombers were killed on Sept. 15, when security forces blew up four rigged cars before they reached oil and gas facilities in the eastern provinces of Marib and Hadarmout. A worker with Canadian oil company Nexen Inc was also killed.
The attempts came days after al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, issued a videotaped threat of attacks on the Persian Gulf and on facilities he blamed for stealing Muslim oil.
Commenting on the foiled attacks, the group said: "These operations came in response to directives from our emir [leader] Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may God preserve him, in which he ordered Muslims to hit the Western economy and stop the robbing of Muslims' wealth."
The group also said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh should "repent, return to his faith, apply Islamic law, renounce democracy, the religion of America and abandon [his] alliance with the infidels."
"Let him [Saleh] know that his rule will not last [forever] and that God bestows his victory upon his soldiers ..."
Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1990, has cracked down on al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US and bombings in the Arab state.
"Let them know that our blood is not cheap. The killing of Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will not pass without revenge ... let the tyrant of Yemen know that the killing of Sheikh Ali al-Harthi by US missiles will not pass without revenge," the statement continued.
Harthi, al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, was killed by a missile fired by an unmanned CIA plane in Yemen in 2002 and Iraq's al-Qaeda branch chief Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June. It said the operations were named after the two men.
Yemeni officials were not immediately available for comment, but the US intelligence official said the group appears to be trying to emerge as an organization.
"They clearly have tried to be organized. They carried out attacks in September that showed some semblance of an organization. But whether this is from them or bears that mark, I don't know," he said.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS