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In Yemen, soldiers kill al-Qaeda leader and militant ambush kills 2 troops

Mehdarhad (AP)   Enlarge Photo    TOOLBOX  Resize Print E-mail Yahoo! Buzz   COMMENT nts  BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT You must be logged in to leave a comment.Log in | Register  Why Do I Have to Log In Again? scussion Policy WHO'S BLOGGING » Links to this article

By Sudarsan Raghavan

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 14, 2010

SANAA, YEMEN -- Yemeni security forces killed an al-Qaeda leader during clashes in an extremist stronghold while a road ambush by militants left two soldiers dead Wednesday in the latest battles in an escalating war.

Soldiers surrounded the home of al-Qaeda cell leader Abdullah al-Mehdarhad in the Habban region of Shabwa province in Yemen's southeast. That triggered a shootout in which Mehdarhad was killed, according to 26Sep.net, a Yemeni Web site that serves as a mouthpiece of the nation's military.

Meanwhile, Mehdarhad's followers ambushed a Yemeni military unit on a nearby road, killing two soldiers. The attack was thought to be an attempt to draw soldiers away from the siege, the Web site reported. Four suspected militants were arrested.

Wednesday's operation was the latest in a series of strikes against suspected al-Qaeda fighters conducted by Yemen's government, with U.S. assistance, in the wake of the attempt to bomb an American airliner on Christmas Day. Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, is under immense U.S. pressure to combat al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has asserted responsibility for the airliner plot. At the same time, the government increasingly views the Yemen-based al-Qaeda affiliate as an internal threat, not just a problem for the West.

"We consider al-Qaeda a risk now, maybe greater than before," Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubaker al-Qirbi told reporters Tuesday.
Since the failed bombing, the United States has doubled its counterterrorism funding and training, as well as increased its economic aid.

The intensified campaign against al-Qaeda comes as Yemen's government seeks even more economic and development aid to combat extreme levels of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. World leaders are scheduled to meet in London on Jan. 28 to discuss ways to combat Islamic radicalization in Yemen. The government is besieged with multiple emergencies, including a civil war in the north and a secessionist movement in the south. Even as the government takes on al-Qaeda, its five-month-old offensive against Shiite rebels in the north is intensifying.
Yemeni Interior Ministry officials said Wednesday that at least 15 rebels were killed in clashes over the past two days; a day earlier, a Saudi defense official said the kingdom's forces had killed hundreds of Yemeni rebels inside Saudi territory, an assertion that could not be independently verified. Saudi Arabia entered the conflict in November after a Yemeni rebel raid into its territory.

Saudi Arabia's assistant defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, told reporters that clashes with the Yemeni rebels have killed 82 Saudi soldiers, underscoring the toll the kingdom is enduring even as it conducts airstrikes and uses heavy firepower against the rebels.
On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Saudi Arabia's role in the conflict. "We were expecting that Saudi Arabian officials act like a mentor and make peace between brothers, not that they themselves enter the war and use bombs, cannons and machine guns against Muslims," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech.
Yemen has long charged that the Shiite rebels get financial and military support from Iran, an allegation Tehran has denied. Saudi Arabia also accuses Iran of meddling in Yemen's affairs.

Iranian Nuke Scientist Killed In Bomb Blast

A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a bomb in Tehran this morning, triggering a furious controversy over who was responsible.

The regime blamed the death of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi on opposition “mercenaries” financed by Western and Israeli intelligence agencies seeking to derail Iran’s nuclear programme.

The state-controlled media called Dr Ali-Mohammadi a staunch supporter of the Islamic Republic, but opposition websites claimed he may have been killed because he was a convert to the so-called Green movement.

An extreme fringe group called the Monarchical Society claimed responsibility on its website, but there was no obvious reason why it would have targeted Dr Ali-Mohammadi and it was impossible to say whether the claim was authentic.It is conceivable that the regime had Dr Ali-Mohammadi killed, to discredit the opposition, to prevent him leaking nuclear secrets or as a warning to other nuclear scientists.

Dr Ali-Mohammadi, 50, died when a remote-controlled bomb exploded outside his home in the smart Qeytarieh district of northern Tehran, according to Iran’s state media. Some reports said the bomb was attached to a motorbike, others that it was concealed in a rubbish bin.

Within hours the Iranian Foreign Ministry claimed that preliminary investigations had uncovered “signs of evil by the triangle of the Zionist regime, America and their mercenaries in Iran in this terrorist incident”.

Officials linked Dr Ali-Mohammadi’s death and the disappearance of Shahram Amiri, another Iranian nuclear scientist, while on a pilgrimage to Mecca last June. The regime accused the United States of kidnapping him.

“Such terrorist acts and the physical elimination of the country’s nuclear scientists will certainly not stop the scientific and technological process but will speed it up,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“Given the fact that Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was a nuclear scientist, the CIA and Mossad most likely have a hand in it,” Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran’s chief prosecutor, said.

State television said that Dr Ali-Mohammadi was a “committed and revolutionary university professor martyred in a terrorist operation by counter-revolutionary agents affiliated with global arrogance [America]”.

But it was not immediately clear whether Dr Ali-Mohammadi was an important player in Iran’s nuclear programme.

Mark Fitzpatrick, chief proliferation analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and other Western officials who monitor Iran’s nuclear programme did not recognise his name. He was not one of more than a dozen nuclear scientists honoured for their work by President Ahmadinejad a few years ago.

Dr Ali-Mohammadi taught physics at Tehran University and boasted a long list of publications, which suggests his involvement in the nuclear programme could have been intermittent at best. Tehran University is also regarded as an opposition stronghold and opposition websites said he was a known supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader.

“While reviewing the list of the university professors who supported Mousavi in the elections, it turns out that Prof Massoud Ali-Mohammadi ... was amongst them,” said the Kalameh site. Another, Ayande News, said that Dr Ali-Mohammadi had been publicly identified as a Mousavi supporter.

Ali Moqari, head of the science faculty at the University of Tehran, told the Mehr news agency that Dr Ali-Mohammadi “was a prominent international figure, but had not been involved in any political activities".

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How do you solve a problem like Iran?

Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- In addition to diplomacy and sanctions, the United States has developed contingency plans in dealing with Iran's nuclear facilities, a top U.S. military commander told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, did not elaborate on the plans in the interview, to be aired Sunday. But he said the military has considered the impacts of any action taken there.

"It would be almost literally irresponsible if CENTCOM were not to have been thinking about the various 'what ifs' and to make plans for a whole variety of different contingencies," Petraeus told Amanpour at the command's headquarters in Tampa.

Iran's nuclear program has become a thorn for the United States and its allies, and Washington has sharpened its tone on dealings over Tehran's program. The Islamic republic maintains the program is for peaceful purposes, but the United States and other Western nations fear Iran wants to acquire nuclear weapons.

Israel has called Iran's nuclear program the major threat facing its nation.

When asked about rumors that Israel could attack Iran's facilities,Petraeus declined to comment about Israel's military capabilities. But when asked about the vulnerability of the facilities, Petraeus said Iran has strengthened the facilities and has enhanced underground tunnels.

Still, the facilities are not bomb-proof.

"Well, they certainly can be bombed," he said. "The level of effect would vary with who it is that carries it out, what ordnance they have, and what capability they can bring to bear."

Iran is holding out on a United Nations-backed deal on its nuclear program that includes enriching uranium. The country had until the end of 2009 to accept the deal offered by the "P5 plus one" -- permanent U.N. Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany. Instead, Iran countered, giving the West until the end of January to accept its own proposal.

The general said he thinks there is still time for the nations to engage Iran in diplomacy, noting there is no deadline on the enactment of any U.S. contingency plans.

He added, however, that "there's a period of time, certainly, before all this might come to a head, if you will."

Three arrested after making bomb threat at Heathrow.

London, England (CNN) -- The three men arrested Friday night aboard an Emirates Airlines plane at Heathrow Airport had made a verbal threat to staff, police said Saturday.

The men, ages 58, 48, and 36, were arrested on suspicion of making a bomb threat and remain in police custody, London's Metropolitan Police said. Their names were not released.

It happened around 9:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. ET) as the Emirates flight was taxiing to take off for Dubai, police said.

Police were alerted and armed officers with sniffer dogs boarded the plane, they said.

All passengers were removed from the plane and police were searching the aircraft overnight.

Heathrow remained open during the incident.