Last month, two suicide attacks occurred in Hadramaut’s Shibam area and Sana’a respectively. The first one left four South Korean tourists killed, a Yemeni driver and six others injured. The second terrorist operation targeted a Korean delegation that came to investigate the circumstances of Shibam operation, but there were no causalities save the bomber.
The address of Al-Qaeda is instigative and allowed other parties and organizations to recruit people in the name of Al-Qaeda to launch terrorist operations. Further, some people can personally launch such attacks under the influence of Al-Qaeda’s instigative and chaotic address. Al-Qaeda in Yemen raises many questions as for the number of its personnel, the risks they pose and their relations with those considered by them to be enemies including the authorities and Americans.
In their efforts to contain Al-Qaeda, Yemeni authorities are in a open war with them and the nature of this organization made it possible for some groups to work with the authorities while others work against. Still, there are deep doubts about Yemen’s dealing with such a file especially when the state lacks in the concept of state’s overall security.
Al-Qaeda’s address was focused on fighting crusaders and Jews, despite the fact that no single Israeli interest was attacked. Further, targeting foreign tourists is included in Al-Qaeda’s address, but the question remains, why Koreans?
The first assumption is that Al-Qaeda’s style is chaotic and targeting tourists is not decided by nationality; the second is that another organization targeted the Korean tourist for unknown reasons and both assumptions are accepted.
Both operations have left behind wide negative effects. The first victims of such acts are both Islam and Muslims. Islam which is a mercy for human beings and urges Muslims to posses power for forcing others to accept peace is thus viewed to be the religion that: calls Muslims to commit suicide and killing acts against others.
Both operations will have negative political aspects on Yemen especially in matters relating to the attempts by the authorities to contain Al-Qaeda and cooperate with Americans in what is known to be “war on terror”. These two operations reinforce the distrust of Americans on the authorities and the possibility of directing military attacks in certain areas of Yemen and turning these areas into another Waziristan. This will also bring Yemen into the front of international media and will picture the country as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda, something that harms Yemen’s international relations.
The two operations clearly indicate that the absence of a total national security strategy is among the key reasons that prevent the state from containing the armed groups including Al-Qaeda. They clearly indicate that Al-Qaeda has penetrated security apparatuses, because its element were capable to decide both time and place at which the Korean delegation passed by the area; they can further lead to other security problems the last of which was killing a university student at the gate of Sana’a University and this prompted tribesmen to occupy the university premises. Again, both operations raise the concerns of foreign governments who have started to warn their citizens against traveling to Yemen, considering it to be a highly dangerous country.
The recent operations have left negative impact on investments and tourism, leading to complicated economic problems. Thus the country is inflicted by three destructive powers: foreign powers, the regime and Al-Qaeda.
Source: Yemen Post
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