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| Arabia | |
| Qaida Bans Qat Sales in South Yemen City | |
| 2015-05-15 | |
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... on Thursday outlawed the mild narcotic qat widely consumed throughout Yemen, in a city under its control, a local official said. Qat is an evergreen shrub native to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, and chewing its leaves and shoots as a stimulant dates back centuries. Al-Qaeda murderous Moslems seized a large quantity of the plant that traders had hoped to sell in Mukalla in south east Yemen, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . On Wednesday, the group distributed leaflets in the coastal city saying that the sale and consumption of Qat would be banned from Thursday. The mild narcotic qat, which has a stimulant effect similar to drinking numerous cups of strong coffee, is part of the social fabric of Yemen. AQAP has exploited months of fighting in 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... between Iran-backed rebels and the beleaguered Saudi-backed government to take advantage of the growing chaos and seize Mukalla, a city of more than 200,000. The United States considers AQAP to be the bad boy group's deadliest global franchise and regularly targets its murderous Moslems with armed drone strikes on Yemeni territory. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 A bit of a bridge too far, eh? Still, should make for amusing festivities. Popcorn? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2015-05-15 01:00 |
| #1 Now they're going to have a popular uprising! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-05-15 00:09 |