An investigation is still under way to determine the group(s) behind the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month, but there are credible indications about its perpetrators’ links to transnational terror outfits, especially Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has claimed responsibility.
If those links are proven, they should give a greater impetus for greater international cooperation to combat terrorism, more than what we have now. For example, it appears that the United States had knowledge of ties between Paris perpetrators and AQAP and that they were on US no-fly lists. Other countries have also claimed that they had warned of the attacks. If such claims are accurate, they indicate less than complete cooperation between security agencies, and sharp differences in their risk assessments.
The Yemen links are especially alarming, because terrorism is on the rise there since Houthi militias’ expansion. They have provoked a backlash from Sunni tribes, providing an opening for the AQAP to ally with those tribes. Saudi Arabia has warned repeatedly of the globalization of terrorism. When Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah addressed newly accredited ambassadors to Saudi Arabia last August, he forcefully called for greater international action against terrorism in the region. Without it, he said, terrorism would quickly spread to Europe, the US and elsewhere. The US-born terrorist leader, Anwar Al-Awlaqi, posthumously implicated in the Paris attacks, is a case in point for globalized terrorism; he was one of the terrorist leaders most attractive to western recruits, including the brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who appeared to have had links with Al-Awlaqi and AQAP in Yemen.
Al-Awlaqi was born in 1971 in New Mexico and left with his family to Yemen in 1978. His return to the US in 1990 coincided with first Iraq war, which polarized the Arab immigrant community in the US. Initially enrolled to study engineering in Colorado, Al-Awlaqi later joined Islamic radicals in the US. He had links with some of the 9/11 perpetrators, but authorities found no evidence of his direct involvement in the attacks. Al-Awlaqi left the US in 2002 for London, a hub of radical groups. Two years later, he left for Yemen where he joined AQAP and called for violence against the US and other countries he considered to be hostile to Islam. Al-Awlaqi was in charge of AQAP’s external relations, where he established links with Muslim communities living in the West, harping on the alienation some of them felt, managing to attract members of those communities, as well as recent converts. His experiences in western societies, together with his false pretensions of Islamic religious expertise, proved to be a lethal combination. His English-language posts and videos were widely circulated on the Internet, helping to recruit many westerners.
Al-Awlaqi came to the world’s attention when it became known that he had some influence over the Muslim-American psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hassan, who gunned down 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, military base in November 2009. After that incident, Al-Awlaqi attracted more followers, who flocked to his website and Facebook page and eventually to Yemen to meet him. One of those young followers is believed to be Said Kouachi, according to US authorities who were keeping close watch over Al-Awlaqi until he was killed in an air raid in Yemen in 2011. His younger brother, Cherif Kouachi, has also claimed ties to Yemen and Al-Awlaqi.
Similar to Al-Awlaqi’s experience in the US, the Kouachi brothers were born in France, but later became alienated and angry. Al-Awlaqi and his followers provided readymade solutions for young people such as the Kouachi brothers, by pushing them to commit violence against what they saw as transgressions against Muslims. The Paris incidents also demonstrated the dangers of instability in Yemen, which has become fertile ground for terrorist activities, spilling over to neighboring countries and beyond. It is especially alarming that terrorism in Yemen is growing after a brief period when it appeared to be on the defensive.
In 2012, after President Ali Abdullah Saleh had agreed to leave office, combating terrorism became a priority for the transitional government. It was able, with help from its allies, to weaken AQAP and expel it from several strongholds. However, those successes are being reversed after Houthi militias managed to extend their control over large swathes of territory in Yemen. They have imposed their monolithic religious views on Zaidi-majority territories and are now threatening Sunni-majority areas. AQAP took advantage of those transgressions and presented itself as a potential ally of the Sunni tribes. AQAP is repeating what the so-called Islamic State (Daesh) did in Iraq, when Shiite militias overran Sunni-majority areas and Daesh came to the rescue.
Perhaps after the Paris incidents and links to AQAP, there would be greater attention to combating terrorism in Yemen, in both its AQAP and Houthi versions. Houthi violent actions have prevented Yemen from restoring its stability and security. Last year, just as Yemeni factions concluded their National Dialogue Conference and reached historical compromises, Houthis resorted to violence to impose their own views of what Yemen should look like. They overran several regions, including the capital Sanaa, routing Yemeni security forces in the process. They have assassinated their opponents and destroyed their homes and offices. They have also attacked government officials who stood in the way. The latest incident was the brazen kidnapping on Jan. 17 of President Hadi’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Ahmed Awadh Bin Mubarak, in an attempt to derail discussions to finalize the Constitution draft. Abdel Malik Al-Houthi has proudly taken responsibility for the kidnapping, despite Mubarak’s perceived sympathy for the Houthis.
Yemen is in danger of repeating the experience of Daesh in Iraq and Syria. AQAP is adopting the cause of alienated tribes and recruiting their youth to stop Houthi incursions. Will we see another international coalition in Yemen to stop this development before it is too late?
