Via LWJ:
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken control of yet another major town in Yemen. The AQAP fighters are led by the brother-in-law of Anwar al Awlaki, and they have sworn allegiance to Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda.
An AQAP force, led by Tareq al Dahab, entered the town of Rada’a in Baydah province on Saturday night and laid siege to the police station and other government buildings, according to Reuters. Two policemen were killed in the assault.
“Al Qaeda has raised its flag over the citadel,” a resident in Rada’a told Reuters. “Its members have spread out across the town’s neighborhoods after pledging allegiance to Ayman al Zawahri during evening prayers (on Sunday).”
Dahab, the leader of the AQAP force that took control of Rada’a, is a brother-in-law of Anwar al Awlaki, the American citizen who served as a senior cleric and operational commander for AQAP before he was killed in a US drone strike in August 2011. Dahab was recently transferred to Yemen from Syria, which had captured him while he was attempting to enter Iraq, according to Reuters. It is unclear if Yemeni authorities released him or if he escaped from a Yemeni prison.
Rada’a, a town of 60,000 people which is just 100 miles south of the capital of Sana’a, is the latest population center to fall to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
AQAP took control of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, in May 2011. The terror group has battled government forces to a standstill in Zinjibar. Three Yemeni Army brigades — one infantry, one mechanized, and one armored — are involved in the fighting in Zinjibar.