Yemeni Official Killed, National Dialogue Moves Forward

Photo Credit: AFP Photo/Mohammed Huwais

In Yemen on Wednesday two suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed Colonel Abdullah al-Mushki, a high-ranking security official. “The interior ministry said that 40 members of the security forces and four civilians were killed in 2012 in hit-and-run shootings by gunmen on motorbikes.” This latest assassination came just two days after Yemeni security forces raided an apparent Al-Qaeda hideout near Sana’a, arresting two operatives, and “seizing explosives, suicide bomb vests, assassination manuals and lists of targets for attack.” Also on Monday, ten other Al-Qaeda suspects were formally charged. Earlier, a tribal leader nicknamed Mulla Zabar was killed in one of Al-Qaeda’s southern strongholds. “Zabar mediated between Al-Qaeda and the government many times.”

Meanwhile, the National Dialogue Preparatory Committee nominated three candidates for the secretary general position of the upcoming National Dialogue Conference. Only the Salafi Rashad Party, the Al-Haq Party and the Unionist Assembly Party had submitted its lists of candidates to participate in the conference so far. The Joint Meeting Parties and General People’s Congress confirmed that they would do so before the deadline, but the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party said it would only participate “if the 20 Points presented by the Preparatory Committee to President Hadi are honored.” In Gulf News, Patrick Seale reviews Yemen’s challenges and concludes that choosing “dialogue rather than to violence is very much a step in the right direction — and an example to others.”

Finally, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakul Karman continued to advocate for changes in Yemen. Though her Islamist Islah party and her relationship to it have been criticized, she is focused on fighting intolerance. She said that women and youth “‘will create a new power, a new movement. The revolution has changed the way women look at themselves…We will lead the way to change.’”