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The Islamic Jihad in Yemen, the group that claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S embassy in Sanaa Wednesday, demanded that the U.S. and British Embassies in Sanaa be shut down, in a statement mailed to a number of Yemeni news websites. The group had claimed to have an affiliation with al Qaeda. “We, the organization of the Islamic Jihad in Yemen, affiliated to al Qaeda, demand from the U.S. and British embassies to leave Yemen immediately,” the statement said.

Yemeni Shiite group “Ansar al Haq” posted two new videos showing new scenes of their fighting with government forces in Saada, northern Yemen. The first video showed a militant sneaking up to a U.S. tank, putting explosives on it and running away before blowing it up. The second video showed a U.S. helicopter that had been shot down by the group in the Meran area. Pictures taken from the mountains showed a large column of dark smoke rising from the location where the helicopter crashed in the valley below. There were also some pictures of the aftermath showing the plane’s debris and some fighters gathered around and shouting, “Death to America, Death to Israel.”

President Saleh sent a message to the Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the militant Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, urging him to intervene to put an end to the fighting with the rebel Huthi followers in Saada in northern Yemen, according to a report posted on a Yemeni Internet forum by the Yemeni Shiiter group Ansar al Haq. The group also posted several videos that showed aftermath pictures of an airstrike by Yemeni warplanes on a village in Saada. One video showed what the group said were parachute drops of food and supplies for Yemeni forces stranded in the Meran area.

Supporters of Yemeni Shiite rebels, followers of Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, posted a short clip showing two military vehicles seized by the group in al Mahazer area during fighting between the two sides that took place this month. The video showed al Huthi soldiers in the back of the two pick-up trucks sporting their guns and shouting “Down with the USA...Down with Israel.”

The fighting between Yemeni forces and al Huthi supporters began in 2004 when the leader of a Shiite Zaidi sect Hussein al Houthi, issued a religious edict against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, accusing him of being an agent of the United States and Israel. Al Huthi then created a group of militants called Believer Youths and entered into a confrontation against Saleh’s forces in a bid to reinstate the Zaidi emirate that was brought to an end in 1962.

Supporters of Yemeni Shiite rebels, followers of Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, posted a short video on a Yemeni Internet forum, showing four army trucks loaded with ammunition exploding.

The fighting between Yemeni forces and the Huthi supporters began in 2004 when the leader of a Shiite Zaidi sect, Hussein al-Houthi, issued a religious edict (fatwa) against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, accusing him of being an agent of the United States and Israel . Al Huthi then created a group of militants called the Believer Youths and entered into a confrontation against Saleh’s forces in a bid to reinstate the Zaidi emirate that was brought to an end in 1962.

The so-called “Yemen branch” of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, released a video interview with a member of the group’s consultation council identified as Abu Huraira al San’ani in which he threatened the Yemeni government saying that if it does not shut down the political prison which he referred to as “Yemeni Guantanamo,” the group would use its own ways to do so.

The one-hour video shows al San’ani surrounded by eight guards, answering questions addressed to him by an invisible interviewer. Most of the questions revolved around al Qaeda operatives held prisoners in Yemeni jails, the “fake” trials held to indict them and the alleged abuse they suffer by interrogators.

Al San’ani, who is also known as Qassem al Rimi, was one of the al Qaeda fugitives from the political security prison in February of 2006.