Islamists Exploit Yemeni Chaos

The New York Times reports:

The ancient port city of Aden is now virtually surrounded by roving gangs of Islamist militia fighters — some linked to Al Qaeda — who have captured at least two towns, stormed prisons and looted banks and military depots in southern Yemen.

Yet the Yemeni government, still busy fighting unarmed protesters farther north, has done little to stop these jihadists. Members of the military, the police and local officials have fled their posts across much of southern Yemen. The country’s American-trained counterterrorism unit has not been deployed. It is no surprise that many Yemenis believe the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, intended it all to happen.

Asked whether the jihadists could soon attack or even overwhelm this strategic coastal city of 800,000, Gen. Muhammad al-Somli — the one commander who has made any serious effort to fight them — said, “I cannot rule anything out.” The governor of neighboring Abyan Province, Saleh al-Zawari, who fled almost a month ago after militants captured the provincial capital, said the area would turn into “another Taliban state like Afghanistan” if something were not done soon.

Yemeni government officials blame the rising chaos on the political crisis, which has kept Mr. Saleh’s forces in Sana, the capital. But interviews with local people here suggest that Mr. Saleh himself — now recovering in Saudi Arabia from wounds suffered in an attack on his palace mosque — is at the root of the problem. His government, based in the north, has for years carried out brutal and discriminatory policies toward the people of south Yemen. The northern military commanders who dominate his army are widely hated and increasingly isolated here, incapable of carrying out the kind of counterinsurgency operations that could ease the crisis.