An al Qaeda group tightened its grip on a Yemeni coastal town while in the capital Sanaa a truce was holding on Sunday to end nearly a week of deadly street fighting that threatened to ignite a civil war. Opposition leaders charged President Ali Abdullah Saleh with allowing the city of Zinjibar, on the Gulf of Aden, to fall to the militants in order to raise alarm in the region that would in turn translate to support for the president.
Armed men believed to be from al Qaeda appeared to have full control of Zinjibar, in the flashpoint province of Abyan. “About 300 militants and al Qaeda men came into Zinjibar and took over everything on Friday,” a resident said. Opposition groups and diplomats have accused Saleh of using the al Qaeda threat to win aid and support from regional powers seeking his government’s help in battling the militants.
There is growing concern that the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) will exploit instability to build on its proven talent for daring bombing plots, analysts said. “Security withdrew and left the city of Zinjibar to armed Islamic elements that looted government institutions,” Ali Dahams, a leftist opposition official in Abyan province, said.
The opposition groups have said they could do a better job of containing al Qaeda than the president. “Now individuals from the army and tribesmen are engaged in confrontations with the armed elements,” he said.
