The Yemeni Interior Ministry has on Sunday revealed new details of the activities of the al-Qaeda elements in the districts of al-Sawma’ah and Maswarah in Bayda province, which were recently liberated in Operation Fajr al-Horiah (Dawn of Freedom).
A security source explained that Al-Qaeda elements turned the technical and vocational institute in the al-Sawma’ah district into a den for the manufacture and storage of explosive devices and belts, secret prisons, and warehouses for mechanisms and weapons.
The source said that the main center of al-Qaeda in the institute included a building to receive foreign fighters, and a building dedicated to the meeting of the leaders of the organisation under the leadership of Abu Hashim al-Abby.
Moreover, the source explained that a person named Munir Bejali al-Ahdal took over the task of “Emir of Al-Qaeda in Hodeidah”, and supervised a number of criminal operations against citizens during his time there.
The source pointed out that Munir al-Ahdal is one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the so-called State of the Arabian Peninsula and the “Emir of intelligence.”
The organisation in the
Southern Yemeni provinces also used his house as a shelter for takfiri terrorists back in 2013.
Al-Ahdal was part of the so-called Wesab cell, which carried out a number of criminal acts in Ibb governorate, before he took over the role Emir of Al-Qaeda in Abyan, Lahj and Shabwah.
The source also reported that Mukhtar Muhammad Ahmad al-Qaisi, nicknamed Abu Omar al-Qaisi, is a leader in al-Qaeda who lives in the Jaer area of al-Sawma’ah district, and is a graduate of the Al-Iman University, noting that al-Qaisi had field participations with al-Qaeda in Abyan in 2011 and in 2013 in Bayhan region.
The report pointed out that Al-Qaisi established the Jaer camp for training sessions in the manufacture of explosives and the training of snipers, as well as another camp in Shabwah and one in the Dhi Ashra area, located on the border between the provinces of Bayda and Shabwah.
Furthermore, the sources explained that a man named Ahmed Saleh al-Dhamji was housing many takfiri elements in his home in al-Sawma’ah district, and worked for al-Qaeda in the field of selling and buying oil derivatives and receiving remittances from abroad.
The source revealed that Elmir Mohametzyanov, a Russian national, is one of the al-Qaeda members in region, and has a house in al-Nahr area of al-Sawma’ah.
Additionally, the same source noted that Abdullah Ahmed al-Jaaidi, a senior al-Qaeda leader, was a former military official of the group in al-Sawma’ah and used his house as a shelter for takfiris and storage of explosive devices.
Samir Musa Ahmed al-Qaisi, a leader of al-Qaeda who specialises in explosive engineering and cultivation, recently managed monitoring cells in Maswarah district, the sources added.
