Sana’a: Civilians who have take up arms in southern Yemen have succeeded in thwarting the Al Qaida plans to occupy more cities in the south, a local fighter from the town of Lowder told Gulf News.

Early this month, Al Qaida militants launched an offensive on Lowder, a small town in the volatile province of Abyan.

The militants faced unprecedented resistance not only from the troops but from the local people who took up arms to defend their town.

“We took up arms to defend our families, property and the town against Al Qaida,” the man who preferred to be known as Al Dhalie said.

Learned lessons

“We have learnt lessons from places that were controlled by Al Qaida. People were driven out of their homes and cities were destroyed. We are fighting because we don’t want to end up in that miserable situation.”

Al Dhalie said the people in Lowder decided to fight Al Qaida when they killed a local figure who was campaigning against the extremists.

“The honeymoon ended when we announced that Al Qaida should immediately leave the town. We expelled them and arrested those who refused to go. In retaliation, Al Qaida assassinated our leader and claimed responsibility for his death.”

In a couple of weeks, those fighters managed to drum up support and thwarted an attack. “Our fighters are from a mixture from Herak (members of the pro-autonomy Southern Movement), Salafists and members of the Islamist Islah party. We are unified under one goal which is defending our town from Al Qaida.”

According to Al Dhalie, they received some weapons from the army and have enlisted the help of retired security officers.

Repelled Al Qaida

“We managed to repel Al Qaida’s first attack by our light weapons. We knew that if our town fell in the hands of Al Qaida, the first thing they will do is settling scores with the inhabitants who fought them. Our town is quiet now and I’m talking to you from my home. Some of the former security officers helping us with their expertise.”

Since the beginning of fighting 15 days ago, at least 45 people have been killed and 183 injured.

“To support the victims, we gave each family 50.000 riyals ($230) and foodsstuff for a month. We advise people in the other cities to get rid of Ansar Al Sharia. People must come together and bury their differences and unify to confront Al Qaida.”

People's movement

Dr. Nasser Al Khanbigi, a senior figure is the Southern Movement, said that the local people’s involvement in the war against Al Qaida was an automatic reaction to growing threat.

Nasser thinks that some parties are using Al Qaida to achieve two goals. “I think many people are capitalising on the war of Al Qaida in order to divert attention from our peaceful movement and their navies to stay in our sea waters.”

Nasser said that some of the security officers who are loyal to the movement are helping the fighters in Lowder.

“I think fighting will encourage people in the Al Qaida-held area to form security committees to liberate their cities from Al Qaida. “

Checkpoints

People in the neighbouring areas of Abyan province have set checkpoints and deployed armed watchmen. Local people in Radafan and Yafaie districts told Gulf News that they are on a heightened alert.

In an attempt to pressure the government to release their prisoners, Al Qaida militants in Abyan threatened to behead dozens of soldiers by Monday if the government didn’t swap them with prisoners, local sources said.

The soldiers were arrested early last month when Al Qaida fighters launched an assault on an army camp in Abyan province. At least 200 soldiers were also killed in the same attack.

Threat to murder 10 soldiers a week

This week, Al Qaida announced in Ja’ar town that they would murder ten soldiers per week if the government didn’t release jailed militants.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch urged militants to stop threatening. “A Yemeni armed group linked to Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula should immediately retract its threats to execute 73 captured government soldiers. Executing prisoners is a serious violation of the laws of war and a war crime “

“Ansar Al Sharia should immediately drop its threat to execute captured Yemeni soldiers,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “No one’s life – whether a captured soldier or civilian – is a bargaining chip to be discarded at will.”