A still image obtained from the SITE Intelligence Group shows Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula number two Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri. (AFP)
SANAA (AFP) – The Yemeni government on Tuesday dismissed Al-Qaeda threats and said it will strike the militants “around the clock,” after the group’s local branch called for attacks on US interests worldwide.
Yemen “will not be intimidated by Al-Qaeda threats,” the interior ministry said in a statement. “Security forces will continue to combat any violation of the law and will strike terrorist hideouts wherever they are found.”
On Monday, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) second-in-command, Said al-Shihri, called for attacks on “American and Crusader interests” around the globe.
Shihri also said AQAP aims to gain control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, and called for cooperation between AQAP and the Somali militant group Al-Shebab.
Al-Qaeda threats “do not frighten the security forces” and the threats “reflect the isolation and despair of terrorist elements in Yemen,” the interior ministry said.
“There is no truce with the terrorists,” it said. Yemen’s security forces will “track terrorist elements throughout Yemen, around the clock.”
Yemeni soldiers manning a checkpoint that leads to the province of Saada at the Malahiz area, north of Sanaa, speak to their comrades passing through with a vehicle. (AFP)
Pro-government tribal militants listen to the speech of Yemeni Brigadier General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the Yemeni army in the northwestern region. (AFP)