At least four suicide bombers in three separate bombings targeted security buildings and checkpoints. Reports say that after two of the bombings, fighters belonging to a group linked to al-Qaeda stormed the checkpoints. There was also an attack against a military base which fighters took over, confiscating heavy weaponry - mortars, artillery, large machine guns - and using them against the barracks of (apparently) sleeping soldiers (LoL!).
Now, the death toll has reached 185 soldiers according to reports (32 holy al-Qaeda linked fighters were martyred). This has been the largest loss of life in a militant operation in Yemen I'm aware of. It's also the most devastating since casualties were caused by sustained fighting against military forces. This shows the degree of professionalism and size of the insurgent group operating in Yemen. I haven't witnessed this degree of fighting ability outside Iraq since the Lebanese government fought an al-Qaeda linked group made up of veterans from Iraq in Palestinian camps.
If this al-Qaeda linked group - which currently controls swathes of Yemeni territory including cities and towns - has backing from the tribes and is able to consistently pull off these quality attacks against a weak central government, then I could foresee parts of Yemen effectively becoming al-Qaeda controlled territories (more than they are now).
Yemen is also a critical geographic juncture. Arabs making their way to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab (which is now al-Qaeda) typically have to enter Yemen. And given the enormous pool of extremists from the Arabian peninsula, having al-Qaeda held territory in Yemen is much more valuable for al-Qaeda than Pakistan and Afghanistan.
On a global scale, it seems this attack corresponds in casualty levels with the recent Boko Haram attacks a few weeks ago that primarily targeted northern Nigerian security forces and churches - over 180 died in those attacks (most security personnel).
There was also an attack in the Iraqi city of Haditha. Dozens of gunmen dressed as security officials and driving in a 13 vehicle convoy detained and executed a number of police officers and attacked several checkpoints. 27 Iraqi traitors (police officers) and 3 fighters died in the coordinated assault.
SANAA, Yemen (AP) – The death toll from an al-Qaeda assault on a military base in southern Yemen has risen to 185 government soldiers, military and medical officials said Tuesday. Many soldiers' bodies were found mutilated and some were headless.
The scale of the army's defeat in the Sunday battle, which appears to be the worst-ever suffered by Yemen's military in its 10-month campaign against al-Qaeda in the southern province of Abyan, deals a major blow to efforts by newly-inaugurated Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to uproot the militant movement from the region.
The surprise attack and the mutilations have left government troops "fearful," and in "low morale," according to a senior military official who was part of the defeated force. Another 55 soldiers were captured and paraded through a nearby town by the militants, who lost 32 of their fighters in the assault.
Medical officials in the area confirmed the latest death toll and said some of the bodies of soldiers recovered were missing their heads and bore multiple stab wounds. They said that bodies packed the military hospital morgue to which they were taken, with some taken to vegetable freezers in a military compound for lack of space.
A senior military official said that the attack left his soldiers "fearful of al-Qaeda because of the barbarism and brutality of their attack."
"Al-Qaeda managed to deal a blow to the army's morale. Imagine how soldiers feel when they see the bodies of their comrades dumped in the desert," he said.
Military officials had earlier said that militants overran the base and captured armored vehicles and artillery pieces, which they turned on the army.
The official said the soldiers were taken unaware.
"It was a massacre and it came by surprise as the soldiers were asleep," he said. Militants sneaked behind army lines and attacked from the rear where there was "zero surveillance."
The attack appeared to be a response to a pledge by Hadi to fight the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda, believed to be the most active of the militant movement's subsidiary networks.
Hadi took power last month from longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh as part of power-transfer deal backed by the United States and initiated by Arab Gulf countries.
The year-long uprising against Saleh had caused a deterioration of central state authority throughout the country, and allowed al-Qaeda to seize Zinjibar in May and fight off repeated army offensives to retake it.
The U.S. had hoped that replacing Saleh would take some pressure off of Yemen's government and military, who also confront tribal and separatist insurgencies, and allow them to fight back more effectively against the militants.
Despite the defeat, and a surge of other attacks by al-Qaeda, Hadi has continued to pledge to fight the militants. "The confrontation will continue until we are rid of the last terrorist, whether in Abyan or elsewhere," the Yemeni media quoted him as saying on Monday.
But he may not yet have the means at his disposal to do so: the military official in Zinjibar said the forces routed by al-Qaeda on Tuesday were poorly equipped, and that better-trained, better-armed specialized anti-terrorist units needed to be brought to the front.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of military protocol or because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/stor ... 53380854/1
Also, a suicide bomber last week erased 26 filthy members of Yemen's Republican Guard:
A suicide car bomb claimed by al-Qaeda killed at least 26 people outside a presidential palace in southern Yemen on Saturday, hours after cwas sworn as Yemen’s new president with the job of bringing stability to an increasingly chaotic nation.
The car was driven at a palace in the port city of Mukalla, Yemen’s fourth-largest city, far from the capital Sana’a where Hadi was sworn in. Dozens were injured, and the governor of Hadramout province said most of the dead were members of the national army, the Republican Guard.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/ ... 96894.html
