South24 | Shabwa

---

Photos published by “South24”, show armed members of the Arab Peninsula Qaeda reappear in a Merkha’s the mountainous area in Shabwa south Yemen Tuesday.

“These photos come after Al Qaeda kidnapped 5 officers of Shabwa Criminal Investigation Department who have been forcibly moved to Al Bayda governorate.

The photos also show five 4x4 cars, and about 20 people holding personal machine guns and crowding around an apparently important figure.

A local source, told South24, on condition of anonymity, that “the 5 officers traveled to Merkha to investigate the killing of an oil tanker driver during smuggling fuel to the Iran-backed Houthis”.

”Members of Al Qaeda ambushed the five soldiers before kidnapping them and forcibly moving them to Al Bayda” he added.

The source revealed later that the five officers may be released during the next 48 hours due to mediation led by tribal figures between Ataq’s local authority and Al Qaeda.

A tribal source told “South24 '' that “it is most likely that the reasons behind kidnapping the officers are money or releasing a member of Al Qaeda or gaining the freedom to move”

Al Qaeda has intensified its activity in Shabwa and some areas in Abyan after being controlled by governmental forces affiliated with the Islamic Al Islah party and the withdrawal of the U.A.E. backed and the  STC -affiliated  Shabwani Elite in August 2019.

The Yemeni government has not denied the validity of the allegations nor making an official comment about kidnapping the officers.

Read also: Abyan and Shabwa: the Military and Security Theatre of Fighting Against AQAP

Last Friday, more than 30 people were killed or injured, most of them belong to the Security Belt in Abyan when a motorbike bomb bumped into their truck in the middle of a local market in the city of Zanjibar in Abyan.^[1]

48 hours later, the security forces arrested two people linked to Al Qaeda who admitted their responsibility.

The S.T.C has called on the “Arab Coalition “and the “International Coalition against Terrorism” to provide the “essential and direct support to complete the war against terrorism”.^[2]

Last week, The White House stressed that a “small number” of American forces are still in Yemen to fight the Qaeda in Arab Peninsula and Daesh.^[3]

---

- Photos: Militants believed to be from al-Qaeda in Markha district, Shabwa governorate, June 15, 2021 (South24/..)