Attack on website
by Brian Whitaker
Originally published in Middle East
International,
21 January 2005
Unidentified assailants launched a gun and
grenade attack on the heaquarters of a website owned by
Yemen's ruling party, the General People's Congress, on
January 13.
The office was badly damaged and two
journalists were reportedly injured by flying glass. At least
four staff were in the building at the time.
There has been no claim of responsibility
for the attack but the website, almotamar.net, blamed
"people from al-Eman university", a private
institution in Sana'a run by Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani,
leader of the militant wing of the opposition Islah party.
The attack came about a week after the
website received anonymous emails threatening to kill its
editor and his "mercenary" staff because of an
"infidel campaign" against al-Eman university and
Zindani.
Almotamar had earlier published an article
saying that a "military wing" at the university was
planning to stir up violence over the government's plans for
economic reform.
"The occasion is economic reform, but
they are really against the relationship between the US
government and the Yemeni government," the website's
editor, Nizar al-Abbadi, told the Yemen Times. "They
called us unbelievers and threatened to attack us.
"We have special sources inside
al-Eman university, so we got the information inside the
university. It was confirmed that they are becoming armed and
preparing to act against the economic reforms."
Al-Eman is a religious university with
about 6,000 students which the United States accuses of having
links to terrorism. In was briefly shut down by the Yemeni
authorities in 2002. One of the concerns was that it attracted
large numbers of students from abroad who might then be drawn
into al-Qaeda circles.
Last year the US Treasury imposed
financial sanctions on Zindani, saying that he "has a
long history of working with Bin Laden, notably serving as one
of his spiritual leaders". It said Zindani had actively
recruited for al-Qaeda's terrorist training camps and played a
role in the purchase of weapons for al-Qaeda and others.
American officials have also said that
Zindani was implicated in the suicide attack on USS Cole in
October 2000 and that a man who killed three American
missionaries at a Baptist hospital in Yemen two years ago was
a student from al-Eman university.
Zindani denies all these allegations and
has called on the Yemeni government to pursue his quarrel with
the US in the International Court of Justice. He is offering
to reward the Yemeni government with 10% of the proceeds from
a treatment for diabetes, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS that he
claims to have invented.
Fears of renewed violence in Yemen
prompted the closure of the British embassy in Sana'a on
January 5. It reopened 10 days later.
The British government said the move
followed "specific information that terrorists are in the
final stages of planning attacks against British targets and
other western targets in Yemen." It advised British
citizens to be particularly vigilant in places frequented by
foreigners, such as hotels.
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