Ansar Al-Sheria is a group of Yemeni so called jihadists who fought in the Afghan region against the Soviet Union army and then returned home to Yemen in 1990. They were commanded by Khalid Abdul-Nabi, who was once part of an Islamic military group known as the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan. Its leader was later executed in the year 1999 on being charged of abducting then killing of western tourists. It is a guerrilla organization because it consists of an underdog number of self-proclaimed fighters who make surprise attacks against a more powerful and well established force.
The group’s leader Abdul-Nabi suddenly appeared to leave and retreat to his farm in Abyan, this was in 2000. He did this for six years while talking and developing theories about the jihadist Salafi ideology. By 2005 he was referred to as fully rehabilitated by a Yemeni official from the then government. He was arrested in late August 2008 alongside 28 purported Al-Qaeda sympathizers, but after a meeting with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president he agreed to support the government against foreign and domestic terrorists. He was later released in early 2009 by amnesty. All that time his followers still committed to his ideology. He even denied the existence of the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan. His group seized control of Zinjibar the Capital city in Abyan. This indirectly seems to be his base of command where he apparently lived before being imprisoned after he allegedly left his extremist group which he founded.
A number of analysts suspect the group is Al-Qaeda merely trying to shadow its activities with a name that does not attract the attention of western governments as it takes its time to position itself among the jihadists. After all, a local group with a seemingly local name attracts no attention from the UN. As there will be no reason to tamper and intervene with the country’s internal situation. The Ansar-Al Shariah group is still up in arms and has intensified combat against the national Yemeni army in the south, while the Houthis’ Ansar Allah group pushes the army from the north. In my opinion, the group leader is playing possum while he infiltrates the government and bit by bit he will dismantle it while leaking information of army movements to his militia. After all, he is hiding in plain sight.
Works Cited
"New Statesman." New Statesman. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
"Site-wide Navigation." A Persistent Threat: The Evolution of Al Qa'ida and Other Salafi Jihadists. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
"Yemen Caught between Ansar Allah and Ansar Al-Shariah." Yemen Times. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
