Al-Qaida offers gold reward for killing US ambassador in Yemen

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Submitted by beoowzao on Sun, 2012-12-30 01:45

In order to promote jihad in the Muslim world, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula announced in recent days that it would offer a reward of three kilograms of gold to anyone who kills the US ambassador to Yemen, Gerald M. Feierstein, and an additional 5 million Yemeni riyals for killing US soldiers, according to post on the website of al Malahem, the local media arm of al-Qaida.

According to al-Qaida sources, the rewards video, entitled “Jihad Omah,” was penetrated by US intelligence, which deleted part of the announcement concerning the reward. However, al-Qaida stated that it still has the original copy and will continue to publish it from time to time.

Al-Qaida concluded its announcement with the famous words of Osama bin Laden, “Do not consult anyone in killing the Americans.”

In related news, Moroccan police have dismantled a recruitment cell for al-Qaida in North Africa (AQNA) based in the Fez region. Moroccan authorities claim the terrorist cell was designed to enroll and recruit young Moroccans who have embraced jihadist ideas and send them to al-Qaida camps in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria.

According to AFP, the terrorist cell was made up of one man previously arrested under local anti-terrorism laws after having been extradited from Algeria in 2005 for attempting to start a similar terrorist network.

In addition, Tunisian authorities also succeeded in dismantling a branch of AQNA, arresting seven people from the network of terrorist recruiters, including two who were detained on the Algerian border and confessed to being part of the cell. According to the Tunisian Interior Ministry, a terrorist network responsible for recruiting radical Islamists and sending them to AQIM had been dismantled.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates announced on Wednesday that they had busted a cell of Saudi Arabian and Emirate citizens plotting terror attacks in the two countries and in other states. According to the WAM state news agency, an official at the UAE Interior Ministry said the arrests came after coordination between security authorities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He described the terrorist cell as members of the “deviant group,” a term often used in Saudi Arabia to refer to al-Qaida.

In recent years, Saudi authorities have regularly announced the arrest of suspects being linked to al-Qaida. However in the UAE it is very rare. Most of the terrorist networks detected are related to thefts and prostitution.

Opinion:

I think al-Qaida's announcement of financial rewards is part of a psychological war, or perhaps an attempt to imitate America, which often declares prizes for those who give information about al-Qaida or its activities.

The announcement must be taken seriously, however, because al-Qaida is taking many blows these days and is expected to carry out reprisal attacks wherever there are Western or US forces.

I think the US should reconsider its attitude and its war on al-Qaida. Drones, which the CIA has reason to use, often kill civilians without targeting al-Qaida members. This intensifies the rage against America, not al-Qaida, plus it is not a humane method by any justification.

Also, as mentioned in the above report, it seems that al-Qaida is active in most Arab countries these days, not just in Yemen. Therefore, I think America's war on al-Qaida terrorism did not impair the group’s success. Not to mention that one of the disadvantages of the Arab Spring is that it fired up al-Qaida, allowing them to move forward with full strength and hardiness. That is what's happening in the Arab Maghreb countries after al-Qaida was previously confined in Algeria only.

If we go back and remember, al-Qaida in North Africa, also known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, is primarily made up of militants left over from the Algerian civil war who refused to set down their weapons after the victory of the Islamic groups in the Algerian elections were denied by the army during the 1990s.

The war started by the US President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush is still going on, and its devastating effects are still felt in the loss of loved ones. The “war on terrorism” does not define what terrorism is. As Arabs and Muslims understand it, America considers any person trying to challenge it a terrorist.

How long will this damn war last? It could end sooner than we expect, if we avoid more causes for war.