Abridged from Telegraph)Al-Qaeda fighters take control of Yemen town
Al-Qaeda fighters have taken control of a provincial capital in Southern Yemen, heightening fears that the country's political crisis is playing into the hands of the terrorist group.
Residents of Zinjibar, a town on the southern coast that is home to some 18,000 people, said that 200 masked Islamist militants, some of them members of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, or AQAP, launched an attack that began on Friday afternoon.
The fighters were accused of pillaging the town, burning down buildings and launching violent reprisals that left corpses strewn across dusty streets.
Eyewitnesses claimed that by yesterday (SUN) the militants had taken the town largely unopposed after most government troops stationed there were withdrawn.
"They burned down buildings and said they were going to establish an Islamic caliphate," one resident said. "People were very scared."
Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula has emerged as a powerful force since its leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, Osama bin Laden's former secretary, escaped from prison in 2006.
It has since been involved in a number of attempted attacks on US soil, most notably an attempt by one of its recruits to bring down an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009, with explosives secreted in his underpants.
The group has officially been classified as posing the single biggest threat to US homeland security.
Bomb Libya and support Al-Queda there, give aid to the Egyptian terrorists and do nothing as al-queda take over Yemen. Carter welcomed the terrorists into Iran- seems like Obama determined to carry on his work.













































































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