Over 60 members of the Al-Qaeda escaped Wednesday from a prison in Yemen, a country where, for the past several weeks, there was strong fighting between the army and members of the terrorist network that operates openly for the weakening of central power.
According to security sources, 62 prisoners escaped through a tunnel dug under the prison Moukalla inside the main port town in the Hadramaout province (southeast). They managed to seize weapons and fired on the guards, killing one and wounding two others, then proceeded to the mountains nearby. Only two of them were caught, announced a security source.
An extensive search operation was launched, but the chances of catching them seem minimal, given the relative control of the government on this vast deserted region.
There was another escape from a prison in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, in 2006, when the 23 “dangerous elements” of the terrorist network escaped, including the current leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQPA), Nasser al-Wahishi.
Of the people escaped from Moukalla, 57 are sentenced to prison and some to death, for participating in attacks, according to security sources in Sanaa. This collective escape takes place as the terrorist network is expanding its influence in southern Yemen, where hundreds of armed men, who claim that they are a part of Sharia Supporters, a group which would have links with Al-Qaeda, took over in late May control of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.
Since then, clashes between fighters and security forces have killed over 100 government troops. Also, dozens of insurgents were killed. Some dissident generals have accused the challenged president of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Saleh, that he delivered the city to “armed terrorist groups” to “Shake the Al-Qaeda Scarecrow” and to continue to enjoy international support.
In power for 33 years, Saleh, who is strongly challenged since January, was hospitalized on June 4, at Riyadh, after being injured in an attack on his palace in Sanaa. Since then, he had no public appearance, fueling speculation about his health. At Moukalla, a civil society spokesman, Nasser Bakazkouz, accused the authorities of facilitating the escape.
“Regime lives its last hours and wants to cause chaos in the province”, he said. The important political actors put pressure on Vice President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, that provides de facto interim presidency, to take over the presidency and end the regime of Saleh.
Dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and the largest tribal leader of the country, Sheikh al-Ahmar Sadek, asked Hadi to assume the power at a Sanaa meeting, according to sources close to the discussions. They have provided their support, “for him to exercise the powers of head of state”.
Parliamentary opposition and the young protesters who have installed a camp in a Sanaa market pressure on it to form an Interim Council in order to block the return of Saleh. U.S. Undersecretary of State for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, is expected in this context, at Sanaa, to meet with Vice President and opposition.