AQAP, the original Obama JV team.
Via LWJ:
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) took control of Azzan, a town in Yemen’s southeastern Shabwa province, earlier this week. The jihadists reportedly faced no resistance as they settled in. Citing local residents, Xinhua reported that “many checkpoints were established in Azzan and al Qaeda members distributed leaflets asking people to abide by Islamic teachings.”
Azzan, with an estimated population of 50,000 residents, is the latest area to fall to AQAP since it launched a new offensive last year.
In early April 2015, AQAP seized Mukallah, the capital of Yemen’s eastern province of Hadramout. In addition, the jihadists overran Zinjibar, the capital of the Abyan province, and the nearby town of Jaar in December. AQAP controls other towns and villages in the south as well, while regularly launching operations in other parts of the country.
AQAP first seized Azzan after the 2011 Arab uprisings shook the Yemeni government. However, the jihadists lost control of the town in June 2012 when forces loyal to President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi evicted them. The battle for Azzan was a “big victory over al Qaeda elements,” Hadi said at the time, according to Agence France-Presse.
Government loyalists and AQAP fought one another in Azzan repeatedly over the next two years. During one battle in May 2014, for instance, AQAP failed to retake the town from security forces.