Al Qaeda Fighters Grab More of Yemen
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ABC News(RADA’A, Yemen) — Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate has taken control of a city just 100 miles south of the capital, after militants led by the brother-in-law of the late U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki stormed the police station and the prison in Rada’a Saturday.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula now controls seven population centers in Southern Yemen, according to officials. It has so far rebuffed attempts by the Yemeni military to retake ithe provincial capital of Zinjibar, which militants overran in May.
According to officials, Tariq al-Zahab, who was married to a sister of Awlaki, led a force of 200 militants into Rada’a Saturday. They freed as many as 150 inmates from the local prison, including al Qaeda associates, and allegedly raised the al Qaeda flag over a government building.
Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American who was born in New Mexico, took up permanent residence in Yemen in 2004 and became an al Qaeda recruiter and commander, according to U.S. officials. Awlaki and Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen and al Qaeda propagandist, were killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.
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