Inspire Magazine Issue 4 "The Jihad in Abyan : Abu Zakaria Al-Eritri"

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula broadcast a call through Abyan Radio Station for the Yemeni government army to quickly withdraw from the southern province of Abyan.

NOTE: Posting of this material it is shared for information only.

By: Abu Zakaria Al-Eritri (Inspire Magazine Issue 4)

I was in the North when we heard that the army of the murtadīn wanted to attack the places that the brothers in the South were controlling.

The Amir decided for me to go to the South so that I could participate in defending the blessed state of Abyan. We started our journey from the North all the way to the South, and after a long exhaustive journey, we finally reached safely. The brothers there welcomed us nicely and took us to the guest house. They slaughtered for us goats and we had a good lunch with the brothers.

On the next day, the leaders of Abyan came to us informing us of the situation there and also to plan how we’re going to face the coming murtadīn army. We started to plan our guerilla war. We divided the brothers into groups such as gathering information, reconnaissance, ambushes, assassinations, reinforcement and so on. When everything was ready, we heard that the enemy wanted to enter Mudiah where at that time the mujahidun were controlling.


{But they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners} [8: 30]. We attacked them before they arrived. The Battalion of Assassinations started to target their important leaders and our brothers succeeded in killing Colonel al-Baham, who was the director of security in Mudiah. The speeches that this murtad would make were unlike the rest of the murtadīn. He used to talk about mujahidin in horrible ways. I remember one time he said, “I will arrest all the al Qaeda guys and put them in a plastic bag and send them to Sana’a.” He also started to recruit the tribe’s men to be as spies towards the Muslims for the sake of the Americans and the hypocrite Government of Ali Abdullah Saleh.

With that said, the Southern Secessionist Movement held a demonstration against the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh near Mudiah. When they heard that al-Baham was in the town of Mudiah, a group of them came out but by that time, al-Baham was on one of the main streets of Mudiah to stop their demonstrations. Four of our brothers were dispatched to assassinate him amidst the crowd. When they saw his face, they started to shout him down even though he had his own soldiers and staff with him. Our strategy was to take away the attention from the actual assassin of the group. Alĥamdullilāh, the first bullets hit his head and he went down. Afterwards, all of his soldiers fled and our four brothers safely left the vicinity.

Within a few minutes, the news reached everyone in the town that the mujahidun succeeded in killing al-Baham. Immediately after, people from his tribe and the tribe of the Governor of Abyan, Ali Maysari, went to the house of one of the brothers and told him to come out and give himself up. We sent a message to the brother to never give up and sent a group of brothers in his defense. When they reached the scene, they couldn’t find a way to enter the neighborhood because of the surrounding tribes who wanted to kill him were in every street corner. Then the brothers decided to sacrifice themselves for their brother’s sake. The brothers started shooting bullets in the air as a warning to the tribes. None of them resisted and proceeded to comply with the mujahidin’s demand. Most of the tribal members left the neighborhood and the mujahidun were able to take the brother out.

Then Ali Maysari left Zinjibar with a somewhat sizeable motorcade of about 10 military vehicles. When we heard that, we started to set an ambush on the road that enters Mudiah. When they entered our place of ambush, the mujahidin clamped down on them. They hardly resisted and fled back to the place they came from. We were able to capture a lot of money, two military pick-ups, three dashika’s and lots of ammunition. We burned three military vehicles. On our side we didn’t have any shuhada’ nor any injuries, but these enemies ofAllah had huge losses.

The murtadīn didn’t come out the following Friday because they thought we wouldn’t be there. But when they received news of our strength, they tried to enter again on Saturday while the mujahidin waited for them in the same places that they gave lessons to them before.

This time they came out in huge numbers with tanks, hummers and jets. But we placed our trust in Allah and didn’t fear their numbers as we knew that Allah would give victory to the mujahidin. Our numbers were less than twenty. After a few hours, they entered the place of ambush and the battle started. We targeted the hummers and non-bullet proof cars. The brothers were shooting RPG’s at the tanks, but they kept bringing forward more tanks. Simultaneously, the jets above were bombarding us at every opportunity. However, alĥamdullilāh, the jets above actually ended up bombarding their own army since they were close to us. After a while of fighting, we retreated. Then one of the mujahidin from the Battalion of Istishādiyīn was sent forward to blow them up. Mashā’Allāh it was a very powerful explosion that had devastating results for the apostates.

As a result of the long battle, they had huge losses in men and wealth while the mujahidin didn’t have any injuries nor shuhada’ except the brother who did the martyrdom operation.

We went to one of the brothers’ homes where we wanted to relax that night. Then one of the brothers advised us not sleep in that house because, “as we know, the enemy of Allah had huge losses and they might take revenge by bombing the mujahidin homes.” We agreed and left the house that night and slept a few kilometers from it out in the open.

The night was cold and there were a lot of mosquitoes in the area. We didn’t have any sleeping bags or mats and slept on the hard ground. We prayed fajr and afterwards some of the brothers stayed awake and some slept. I was sleeping under a tree until I was awoken by the sound of a jet flying over us and firing a missile in the distance. I quickly scanned the area around me and I noticed that there were no mujahidin. I thought I was left alone in that place. I stood up and heard a voice from one of the brothers telling me to lie down. I asked him if I could shoot the plane, as it was my responsibility to use the dashika. He approved, and I went looking for it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the place of the dashika vehicle since we had came to the place at night. On my way for the search of the dashika vehicle, one of the anşār appeared in front of me. I asked him where the dashikha was and he replied, “The house got destroyed! The house got destroyed!” He didn’t hear my question since all what was on his mind was the house. That would have been our ticket to martyrdom had we stayed the night in the house, but Allah wanted us to carry on the fight to defend haqq against bāţil.

Alĥamdullilāh, I was able to find the dashika after some time. I wanted to shoot the plane when it got close, but one of the brothers told me not to since shooting it would give away our position. I agreed and waited. We watched as it targeted other areas, firing seven missiles and then finally leaving. Then the American spy plane hovered the skies. We noticed – and they probably noticed as well – that they missed all of the targets and instead ended up killing an old man and injuring two sisters who were inside a house close by.

In the afternoon, a jet arrived to destroy one of the mujahidin’s houses and fired ten missiles at it. Yet, by the qadr of Allah, it didn’t hit the target!

Overall, what I’ve learned from these battles is that the Yemeni soldier, whom I used to think they knew how to fight well, are actually chickens and the only thing they know how to do well is run from the ujahidin and tell lies to the Americans that they captured so-and-so or killed so-and so. I ask Allah to grant us victory.

Source:
Inspire Magazine
Issue 4 Al-Malahem Media Foundation