Public Intelligence

A tribesman holds an AK-47 assault riffle as he looks from the window of a car after a tribal gathering in Sanaa November 8, 2010. Yemen's gun culture is ingrained. As well as wearing curved daggers at their waist, it is not unusual for Yemeni men to carry AK-47 assault rifles, hunting rifles and pistols. Yemen is known for its spiralling political violence. This year the country has seen bloody rampages by al Qaeda militants, another round of conflict with northern Shi'ite rebels and rising brutality in the secessionist south. Picture taken November 8, 2010. To match Feature YEMEN-ARMS REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

AQAP Announces Responsibility for 49 Attacks in Yemen during 2010 (Yemen Post):

Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for implementing 49 attacks against Yemeni forces and foreign targets during the second half of the 2010.

In a statement posted on the internet, it said that they carried out attacks on Yemeni forces, checkpoints, camps, and military vehicles which resulted in killing and wounding many soldiers and officers in security, military, and intelligence apparatus.

It added that they carried out at least 13 military operations targeting security officers and leaders in five provinces, six of them in Abyan, killing at least five security officers, the last being the attack on Ahmed Al-Mesary, the Governor of Abyan and his bodyguards, which killed eight troops and officers, including his brother.

According to the same source, AQAP targeted three officers in Hadramout province and two others in Lahj province; however, the attacks resulted in killing only three of the officers. On the other hand, AQAP was also behind the killing of a senior official in Mareb province, as the statement mentioned, and seized general Ali Al-Hsam, the vice manager of the political security in Sa’ada province.

They also announced responsibility for firing a rocket on a British embassy car in October 2010, while in the same time denying its responsibility for the bombing of Al-Wahdah Sports Club in Shiekh Othman district, Aden, which killed at least four people, and wounded 14 others on October 11.