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Islamist militants in the Somali city of Kissmayo pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, according to a statement posted on a Somali jihadi blog. “The Islamic administration of Kissmayo, under the command of Sheikh Abu Bakr Zayla'I, pledged allegiance to Sheikh Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda leaders, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Yahya al-Libi God protect them all,” the statement said.

The allegiance oath came in an audio statement voiced by the Deputy leader of al Shabab Kissmayo division, Abdel Ghani Mohammad Yousuf, and aired on a local radio station called “al Andalus Islamic Radio.” He said that the group did not “fear the infidels of America and their allies, nor did they fear the apostate government in Somalia. “

The deputy leader announced in his radio address that his group gets its religious edicts from the leaders of al Qaeda. “I say to the Somali people that our jihad is an integral part of that of our brethren in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said. He added that “every aspect of jihad management in Somalia” was for senior al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed had told a press conference in Mogadishu last month that foreign fighters had joined the ranks of Shabab al Mujahideen group and appealed to the international community for help.

This is the first time that Islamist militants in Somalia openly associate themselves with al Qaeda, despite previous indications of cooperation and coordination between the two groups.

In March 2009, bin Laden released an audiotape that he dedicated entirely to Somalia, which reflected his interest and that of al Qaeda in the country. In the tape, Bin Laden lashed out at the newly elected Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and urged Somali militants to overthrow him.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's media house released a new video about the assassination of Major Mohammed Ben Rabeesh al-Kaalan, head of the Security Directorate in Marib province last October. The 10-minute video produced by Sada al Malahem was entitled “Rabeesh and the Just Punishment" and opens with an introduction that shed some light on al Kaalan and the reason why al Qaeda decided to kill him.

The group claims in the video that al Kaalan was a bitter enemy of the militants and a strong ally to the "apostates." He collaborated closely with the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, they claim, and used to “regulary receive the U.S. ambassador to Yemen in his home.”

The group blamed the man for the death of former al Qaeda leader Abu Ali al Harthi, a good friend of al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and one of the men behind the attack on USS Cole in 2000.

Al Harthi was killed back in 2002 in a U.S. drone attack on al Qaeda positions in Maarib desert, 160 kms northern the Yemeni capital. The group also held al Kaalan responsible for the killing of four militants killed by Yemeni security forces in 2007.

The video finally shows pictures of the booby-trapped package that was sent to al Kaalan in October 2008. The pictures show that it was designed to explode when the box was opened. Al Kaalan opened it on the morning of October 20th and was killed by the explosion.

The group warned other Yemenis collaborating either with the Yemeni President Ali Saleh's regime or with the U.S., that they would meet the same fate if they conspired against the militants.

The leader of the group that kidnapped a Dutch man and his wife in Yemen announced that the two hostages are being treated well and offered to trade them with Yemeni security officers and soldiers who had attacked him a year ago. Tribal leader Ali Nasser al Siraji said the two hostages were his “guests" and assured they were being "fed and well looked after.”
Al Siraji explained that the kidnapping of the two hostages came in response to an attack launched against his convoy in April 2008, which badly wounded six of his guards. He accused the security chief in Maarib Mohammed al Ghadra and the head of central security Mohammed Omar of standing behind the attack and demanded that they be handed over to him.