Weekend Links

While we were away on various trips and excursions over the weekend a great deal happened in Yemen, some of which we will try to highlight below.

The security director in al-Dhala’ has been replaced by Ghazi Ahmad Ali. The old director, Fadlal-‘Anshali, of course was running the show when al-Masri’s car came under fire in the region last week. Let this be a lesson for would-be security directors out there: don’t let people fire on your boss or you may soon be out of a job.

Both the rhetoric and actions between the Huthis and various other forces are heating up once again – Including clashes over a mosque. I see al-Sharq al-Awsat has a story and Marib Press has a story claiming to cover the details of the fighting – I haven’t had time to read either and so I’m not linking to either, but I will do so when I have a chance to read them.

Al-Qirbi also gave an interview to al-Sharq al-Awsat over the weekend. English here. In a meeting yesterday, I mistakenly wondered out loud if this was a result of the stories of al-Qaeda fighters moving from Pakistan/Afghanistan to Yemen, only to be told that that story was old news and that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Later in the day, I got confirmation that in fact al-Qirbi’s interview was a result of those stories as well as some recent events. Smugness and blogging are a fairly combustible mixture so I will just leave it at that.