(ICRC) -- Over the past few days, an escalation in fighting has resulted in scores of civilian casualties in Ja'ar, Abyan...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an
Islamic Emirateafter seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
governorate. "We are extremely concerned about the increasing number of casualties and about allegations of air strikes in civilian locations," said Eric Marclay, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen.
The ICRC calls upon all parties involved in the fighting to distinguish at all times between civilians and fighters and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilian lives. Medical staff and facilities must also be protected and respected. "We ask the parties involved to protect civilians and allow health-care workers to do their job safely," said Mr Marclay. "We also ask that injured persons be allowed to seek medical attention in safety."
Within the past three months, the ICRC has distributed food and other items to around 100,000 internally displaced people and residents in Abyan governorate. It has also provided medical treatment for people maimed in the fighting and medical supplies for health-care facilities, in addition to completing a water project supplying clean water to more than 100,000 people. It stands ready to further scale up its humanitarian assistance in the area and to support medical facilities providing treatment for war-maimed patients.