Gulf of Aden Security Review - January 7, 2014

Yemen: Presidential committee negotiates truce in Hajjah; car bomb injures intelligence officer in Aden; gunmen assassinate police officer in Aden; Saudi court sentences five people to prison for role in al Qaeda-linked plot; reported airstrike in Abyan kills five AQAP miiltants

Horn of Africa: Gunmen injure local police chief in Mogadishu; Somali security forces conduct operation in Lower Shabelle; Nigerian police unit rotates in to AMISOM deployment

Yemen Security Brief

• The presidential committee tasked with resolving the conflict between the al Houthis and Salafists in Haradh in Hajjah governorate successfully brokered an agreement to end the fighting. The agreement requires both parties to return to their own villages and checkpoints and roadblocks established during the conflict.[1]

• Yemeni Colonel Saleh al Qadi, a political security officer, survived an assassination attempt after a bomb planted in his car exploded early January 7 on Aden’s al Aqabah Road in Sirah district.[2]

• Gunmen assassinated a Yemeni police officer in Aden on January 7. The officer, Lieutenant Mubarak al Ashram, was killed in Dreen district and a second officer was injured.[3]

• A Saudi court sentenced five individuals to up to 30 years in prison for involvement in an al Qaeda-linked plot to target an oil refinery in Yanbu port with car bombs on January 5.[4]

• A reported airstrike on January 5 in al Mahfad district in Abyan governorate killed five reported al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants and injured four others, according to a soldier in the 111th Brigade. Yemen’s Interior Ministry reported that the AQAP militants were injured by tribal gunmen.[5]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

• Gunmen injured Yaqshid district police chief Faraweyne in Towfiq village in the Mogadishu district on January 7. Separately, a remote-controlled bomb targeted a place frequented by Somali federal troops in Caymiska village in Yaqshid district. The number of casualties has not been reported.[6]

• Somali security forces conducted an operation in Afgoi town in Lower Shabelle region. The operation began late on January 6 and continued into January 7 and followed complaints of looting and rape. Nine people were arrested.[7]

• The Nigerian Formed Police Unit operating in Mogadishu under AMISOM rotated out its personnel. Seventy new officers arrived in Mogadishu and were inaugurated on January 6.[8]