NY Times:
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In Abyan, a volatile province in southern Yemen, Yemeni security forces started shelling the coastal city of Zinjibar after several hundred militants took over government institutions there on Friday, residents said. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that five soldiers had been killed in the fighting there since Friday.
The militants took over banks, government offices and security headquarters, the residents said. They also said that the militants had been driving around the city in cars with loudspeakers blaring, “We declare that Zinjibar fell in the hands of Mujahideen after it was liberated from the agents of the Americans.”
It was unclear whether the militants, who traveled from Jaar to Zinjibar, belong to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local branch of the international terrorist network, however the area is filled with citizens who are sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
The terrorist organization has used the lack of rule of law in Abyan to raise its profile, and the fighting in Zinjibar was another example militants in outlying provinces exploiting the chaos in Yemen to advance their causes. Militants took over the nearby city of Jaar in March and in the north Houthi rebels established themselves as the rulers of Saada Province the same month after government officials fled the area.
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Al Qaeda needs chaos in to exploit opportunities to seize limited control of turf in Yemen. Even with the chaos Yemen is producing, al Qaeda is probably too weak to hold any area it claims. Hopefully the security forces can take the opportunity to destroy this particular cell.
Image via Wikipedia
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