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| Arabia |
| Yemen Loyalists Retake Southern Provincial Capital |
| 2015-08-10 |
| [AnNahar] Forces loyal to Yemen's exiled government recaptured a southern historic provincial capital from Iranian catspaws and their allies on Sunday as they pressed an advance from second city Aden. Zinjibar, capital of 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... province, had been held by troops of the renegade 15th Brigade which remains loyal to ousted strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... who is allied with the rebels. Troops entered the coastal town, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Aden, after overrunning the brigade's barracks outside with support from Saudi-led air strikes, military sources said. Residents of Zinjibar forced out by fighting that devastated their city also returned Sunday to take stock of the damage, a relief official said. But many, including loyalist fighters, bit the dust as they stepped on mines planted by the rebels before they withdrew from the city. At least 19 people were killed and 163 maimed on Saturday and Sunday in Zinjibar and the surrounding area, Aden health chief Al-Khader Laswar told AFP. Mines and unwent kaboom!ordnance have caused similarly high corpse counts in Aden itself since the rebels' pullout last month, with dozens of civilians reported killed and hundreds maimed. Zinjibar is the third southern historic provincial capital from which the rebels have been driven out. The loyalists secured Aden in mid-July and restive Lahj ... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement historic provincial capital Huta on August 4. Aden was the last refuge of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi before he fled into exile in neighboring Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... in March. Riyadh has since led a bombing campaign and air and sea blockade against the Iran-backed rebels and their allies in a bid to restore his authority. It has also provided training and equipment to loyalist forces and earlier this month reportedly deployed hundreds of ground troops to Aden. The capture of Zinjibar came three days after tribal and military sources said Saudi Arabia sent tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers to back the loyalist forces. Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers trained in the oil-rich kingdom were also sent to bolster Hadi's forces, the sources said on Thursday. The recapture of Zinjibar is expected to strengthen the position of loyalist forces as they expand their zone of control in southern Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and could pave the way for an attempt to pursue rebels further north. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |