SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- The Al-Qaeda military chief in Yemen has vowed to launch fierce attacks against Shia Huthi fighters sweeping across the country, in an audio message posted Friday on jihadist websites.
“To the Huthis we say: brace yourselves for horrors that will make the hair of children turn white,” said Qassem al-Rimi, the military chief of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
AQAP, which is considered by Washington as the most dangerous arm of the jihadist organisation, said several attacks targeting Huthis and claimed by the group were only a “warm-up”.
“Today you are our target… and don’t even think that your crimes will go unpunished,” added Rimi.
AQAP has already threatened an “all out war” against the Houthis and claimed several deadly attacks on them, including one in October in Sanaa that killed 50 people.
Earlier this month, AQAP leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi accused the Huthis of collaborating with the United States and Iran to destroy Sunni Muslims.
Meanwhile Yemen’s Shia Ansarullah fighters have managed to push al-Qaeda militants out of the southwestern strategic town of Rada’.
The Ansarullah fighters, who have the support of allied tribesmen, are now in full control of the strategic town, said Ali Qahum, a top member of the Ansarullah movement, on Tuesday.
The situation is calm in the town and the al-Qaeda terrorists have escaped to the Yakla district near the city of Ma’rib, he added.
The Ansarullah revolutionaries have also expressed readiness to withdraw from Rada’ in case the Yemeni army is able to restore peace and security to the violence-stricken town.
The town had been under the control of al-Qaeda militants since early 2012.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has stressed the need for cooperation with the Shia fighters, also known as Houthis, to restore security to the country.
Over the past months, al-Qaeda militants have frequently carried out attacks on Yemen’s security forces and have been also locked in deadly battles with Ansarullah fighters.
Yemen’s central government has so far failed to confront the terrorist threat. Ansarullah fighters, however, have intervened to fill the vacuum and driven al-Qaeda militants out of many areas in the country.
The Shia revolutionaries also played a major role in the ouster of Yemen’s former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2012.
Source: Abna
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