Officials in the south-eastern province of Hadhramawt have confirmed this Wednesday that militants believed to be affiliated to al-Qaeda Yemen killed a well-known Salafi (Sunni ultra conservative), Sheik Ali Bawazir.
The Sheikh was gunned down in a drive-by shooting before a religious centre in Hadhramawt.
While al-Qaeda has yet to claim responsibility for the killing, local officials have said that they believe the terror had order a hit on Bawazir after he publicly called on all al-Qaeda operatives to leave the province. Bawazir often criticized al-Qaeda for irresponsibly putting civilian populations at risk in their attempt to evade the authorities.
Keen to crackdown on Yemen’s terror resurgence, US President Barack Obama resumed his drone program back in 2012, after the terror group managed to exploit the impoverished nation power vacuum by expanding its territorial influence and traction. As Sana’a and Washington teamed against terror, drone strikes have rained death from the sky onto unsuspecting rural communities.
If al-Qaeda has so far limited its targeted assassination to security and military officials and officers, as to weaken Yemen’s counter-terror resolve, it appears now that the group is ready to silence any person or group which will dare oppose its ideology.
Moreover, security sources have confirmed under cover of anonymity that Sana’a had authorized two drone strikes in the southern province of Abyan. Security experts have warned over the past few weeks against yet another terror spike in Yemen southern territories at terror militants attempt to use existing tensions between secessionists and Sana’a central government to promote instability.