Oh dear. Yesterday the Washington Post reported that al Qaeda successfully seized a strategic airport, sea port and al-Dhabah oil export facility in the south of Yemen after skirmishes with Yemeni troops.
According to officials who remained anonymous, al Qaeda combatants engaged one of the largest Yemeni infantry brigades on the outskirt of Mukalla, successfully driving the brigade away.
Apparently the military leaders in charge of the brigade fled at the sight of the combatants, and didn’t put up much of a fight. The fragmentation and multilateral war in Yemen is an ideal environment for al Qaeda to gain territory.
Al Qaeda also sprang one of its high-up officials from the Al Mukalla city prison after cleaning out the city bank. Al Qaeda’s principal rivals, the allegedly pro-Iranian Shiite Houthi rebels currently engaged with the Saudi Government, are too preoccupied to worry about the recent al Qaeda advance.
Essentially, the Saudis continue slaughtering innocents while allowing al Qaeda to run rampant and gain ground. The U.S. continues its support of the Saudi slaughter of the rebels, and at the same time U.S. drone strikes took out several al Qaeda members, including a high-ranking official, the New York Times reported. Uncle Sam is knee-deep in the game, and he isn’t fooling anyone.
This development in the Yemeni kerfuffle is big news, and certainly The President is losing some sleep over this one. One obvious reason being that it will indubitably lead to more instability in the already chaotic Middle East, and it’s safe to say that as this thing progresses, it’s ciao to cheap oil.
But wait. This thing keeps getting better and better. Today, Bloomberg reported that Yemeni loyalists to exiled president Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi have successfully wrestled control of yet another oil field in order to prevent it from falling into al Qaeda’s grasp, or Houthi hands at that.
As Yemen slumps further and further into degeneracy, and Saudi Arabia continues to blow the Houthi’s to smithereens and in the processes facilitating the advance of al Qaeda, this thing has the potential to get even crazier. It’s just a matter of time before the U.S. sticks its nose even deeper into the Yemeni chaos, delivering another solid dose of democratic drone therapy.
Analysis by Joseph Siess