Abyan conflict (2016-2017)

Abyan Governorate clashes (2016–present), refers to ongoing clashes between AQAP warlords and president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi forces for the control of Abyan.

Background and internal conflict
Abyan was a longtime stronghold for AQAP since the beginning of the civil war. AQAP was beginning to take parts of areas of southern Abyan from the end of 2016, when they captured Zinjibar and other towns. Internal crisis begin to erupt into Abyan between the legitimate AQAP emir in the region, Tawfiq Belaidi (brother of the late AQAP emir there, Hamza al-Zinjibari) and another AQAP warlord named Abu Anas al-Sanani, over who will succeed Hamza. It's not clear who won the crisis, but the conflict killed 7 and wounded 9 in both sides.

Clashes and other incidents
In 21 of February, AQAP militants withdrew from Ahwar city, after a failed attempt to consolidate control. AQAP militants attacked a popular resistance checkpoint in the area, killing three, before erecting their own checkpoints and flying al-Qaeda’s black flag from government buildings. Militiamen from the Bakazim tribe massed outside Ahwar in response. AQAP agreed to withdraw under the terms of a tribal mediation allowing the group free passage through the city. In March 8, AQAP gunmen abducted a government official named Haidara Daha at al Musaymir, west of Zinjibar. AQAP is consolidating control in Abyan governorate and has targeted local leaders and officials opposed to its expansion. On March 26 and 27, three air strikes carried out by U.S. drones, killing eight AQAP members and three beekeepers in Al Mahfad District. Two Saudi planes launched rockets into an old office of the local government in Zinjibar, setting the building on fire. An unknown number of al Qaeda militants were believed to have been killed or wounded. In 8 April 2016, more than 35 Hadi Yemeni government soldiers were captured by supposed AQAP soldiers in Ahwar. 17 or more than 20 of them were executed by firing squad, with the others being wounded but still alive, and with others believed to have escaped and get to safety out of Ahwar. The soldiers were travelling from Aden to Al Mahrah Governorate via Ahwar, and during hair passing in Ahwar they have been ambushed. One day later, in 9 April, AQAP denied that its fighters executed the soldiers, blaming a local armed fighter named Ali Aqel. "We entered Ahwar around two months ago to chase this corrupt individual and his gang," the statement said. In 14 of April, an airstrike hit an AQAP checkpoint in the Al Kawd, killing 10 AQAP militants. On April 17, two airstrikes hit Zinjibar. No info about casualties provided.

Ground offensive
In April 22, Hadi loyalists and their partners make preparation to attack Zinjibar in a ground offensive. One day later, the battle begun, but the forces of Hadi loyalists retreated after AQAP militants detonated a Car bomb (VBIED) targeting an army convoy that killed loyalists and injured 14 others. Reports indicated that AQAP had planned additional VBIED attacks. The Hadi government had given AQAP a 24-hour window in which to peacefully withdraw from Zinjibar by April 24. In the same day however, loyalists carried out another offensive in Jaʿār, that killed 25 AQAP militants and four soldiers and seized al Koud, three miles south of Zinjibar. AQAP did not agreed with the deal that loyalists offered to them, so they did not withdraw from Zinjibar. In April 26, a U.S airstrike targeted a car carrying al Qaeda militants that was traveling between the cities Ja’ar and Zinjibar. The strike killed 5 AQAP fighters, including a local commander named Abu Sameh al-Zinjibari. Al Qaeda militants arrived in Zinjibar on April 27, after fleeing the coalition-led recapture of their stronghold in Mukalla, Hadramawt on April 23. Residents of Zinjibar demonstrated against AQAP on April 29, the first such demonstration since AQAP captured the city in December 2015. The demonstrators called for the liberation of Zinjibar from AQAP, emphasizing they would not allow their city to become a base for militant activity.

AQAP retreat
AQAP agreed to begin withdrawing fighters from Zinjibar on May 3. AQAP previously reinforced positions in western Abyan governorate on May 3 ahead of a planned government offensive but later agreed to begin withdrawing its forces after further negotiations with local mediators. The group reportedly agreed on April 30 to withdraw from Zinjibar on the condition that government forces not enter the city and that the local militias not resume their activities in the area. AQAP also sought guarantees that its members would remain immune from future prosecution. Local mediators gave the group three days to withdraw before a clearing operation on May 3, but agreed to offer the group an extension to avert a costly battle. Al Qaeda began withdrawing from Zinjibar, on May 5. AQAP militants evacuated several governmental buildings and began to retreat towards Shabwah Governorate. The security director of Abyan governorate, Brigadier General Nasser Ali Hadi, noted that the Yemeni government forces gave AQAP five days to complete its withdrawal from Zinjibar and Ja’ar in order to avoid a government offensive.

AQAP Comebacks and retreats from Abyan
In June 20, AQAP made a brief comeback in western Abyan, when they raided the central prison in Jaar, freeing prisoners after they gained control of the building, and escaping unharmed. Citizens in western Abyan reported that AQAP troops were operating freely in Jaar and Zinjibar as of the end of June, indicating that AQAP begun to re-operate in the area, less than two months after it withdraw. In 28 June, an airstrike targeted the home of AQAP leader, Qasim al-Raymi in Abyan governorate, killing five people, including two family members of the targeted leader. Qasim survived the attack with only some wounds In July 20, the government denounce that they planned an operation to clear Qaeda in the western Abyan. In July 22, AQAP soldiers assassinated Colonel Saeed Salim al-Mul in Zinjibar. In July 24, reported coalition airstrikes targeted a group of AQAP fighters near al Husn city. The airstrikes killed multiple AQAP militants and destroyed vehicles, according to local residents. In August 7, AQAP militants killed Yemeni Colonel Abdullah Shamba in Abyan. In August 14, Hadi loyalists, alongside Sudanese troops, invaded Shaqrah, Zinjibar and Jaar, and recaptured them by AQAP, killing some 40 of them. One day after, AQAP detonated a suicide car bomb in Shaqrah, killing four and wounding another four Hadi loyalists. In 17 of August, the AQAP was withdraw from most of Abyan after Hadi government and popular resistance forces drove them out of Lawder city and Ahwar district. The militants withdrew towards al Bayda city in al Bayda governorate, northwest of Lawder city. One day later, an AQAP suicide bomber killed at least three government soldiers in Lawder. In August 22, Saudi airstrikes targeted AQAP fighter in Al Mahfad District, the last AQAP stronghold in Abyan. In 26 August, Hadi-allied forces entered al Mahfad district to clear AQAP militants from the town, resulting in the complete elimination of AQAP from strongholds in Abyan.

Small scale attacks and AQAP comeback
AQAP returned in Abyan as of med-September 2016, with small scale attacks against security forces. In September 14, militants attacked security forces in al ‘Ayn city, Abyan governorate. AQAP militants killed two Hizam security forces after approaching a checkpoint dressed in military uniforms. One day later, Al Qaeda launched mortars targeting security forces in Mudia district. Hizam security forces attempted to clear the mortar launch site following the attack. . As of September 26, AQAP was returned in Lawder and Al Wade'a District, causing fight with Hizam troops, resulting to the death of an AQAP commander, Abdullah Saeed Habibat in Lawder, and the capture of Abu Osama Al-Yasiri in Al Wadea. Two militants and one Hizam troop also killed in the clashes. As of October 6, AQAP have made a comeback in al Mafhad district by attacking security forces, killing at least one Hizam troop. In 20 October, fighting erupted in Zinjibar and Lawder that left 12 Hizam troops and 7 AQAP dead   In October 27, fighting in Lawdar left three security forces, and one AQAP commander dead. Seven AQAP fighters arrested after clashes re erupted in Zinjibar and Lawdar. in med-November During a 2-hour battle in Lawder and Jaar, AQAP stolen heavy machine guns and supplies from Hizam troops. In November 20, AQAP attacks had left more than three AQAP troops dead in Lawdar. In December 30, a US drone strike killed AQAP Emir of Lawdar in Al Bayda Governorate, Jalal Al-Seydi. After his death, AQAP returned in control of Lawder. In the dawn of January 3, 2017, AQAP soldiers ambushed al-Hizam troops in the outskirts of the Shuqrah district, southern Abyan. During the fighting, three Hizam troops killed and many injured. After the incident, clashes erupted between Hizam troops as for the who the fold was for not been strategically placed in the city. During the conflict many Hizam troops injured. One day after, AQAP attacked again Hizam troops is the Lawder and Shuqrah, killing three and wounding two. Two AQAP soldiers also killed. In January 9, Hizam and security forces troops officially withdraw from the northern Abyan, leaving the territory to AQAP warlords, after intense fights in the Lawdar and Shuqrah, giving AQAP complete control and strongholds in Abyan, after 4 months after it withdraw from Abyan. In January 11, AQAP attacked an Al Hizam convoy that was leaving Lawdar,wounding the general of Hizam, Amin al-Saqqaf, alongside four of his bodyguards. Another 1 Hizam troop were killed. In 13 January, clashes erupted in eastern Lawder, but with no casualties or injuries in both sides. In January 18, AQAP ambushed Hizam troops in Zinjibar, killing one Hizam soldiers, and injuring many others before fleeing the scene. In January 19, AQAP attacked Hizam fighters in Shuqrah, killing and wounding many of their members. In the same day, AQAP deployed its troops in Khanfir District, a southern Abyan city, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants. In the same day, Hizam withdraw from central and southern Abyn, going to Aden, leaving the province to AQAP hands. At the time, a meeting was attended in Zinjibar by securyty commanders of Abyan province. The meeting was attended by Mohammed Al-oban, commander of Zinjibar sector, Mazen Junaidi, commander of Shuqrah and Awhar sectors, and Ali Deeb Boumhal Alkazmi commander of the security forces. The commander vow the resignation of the Hizam forces commander, Abdullah Al-Fadhli, due to his strategically and military failures against AQAP. In 28 of January, AQAP militants ambushed al Hizam security forces in central Abyan governorate killing commander Rushdi al Alwani and three al Hizam troops during the attack. AQAP militants claimed to seize al Hizam weapons after the ambush. AQAP militants also shelled a security headquarters in Zinjibar. In February 2, AQAP gained complete control of Lawdar after it kiled six Hizam troops in the area. One day after, AQAP withdraw from Lawdar because of a tribal uprising against them, that killed 13 of their fighters. Before retreating, AQAP destroyed a government building. In the same day, AQAP gained full control of Shuqrah and Aked in the central Abyan. An AQAP offensive in Ahwar failed, and the fighters retreated to their captured areas in western and northern Abyan. In February 6, AQAP kidnapped and killed colonel Abdullah Khader Hussein in Zinjibar. In February 7, it was announced that four army battalions were made preparation to invade AQAP-held northern and central Abyan. In the same day, in Lawder and Mudiyah District, locan fighters from Al-'Awadhil tribe, embushed and killed 3 AQAP soldiers, among them the al-Qaeda Emir of Al-Ain village, Abdullah Al-Zaidi. In the same day, government officials denied that AQAP was in control of central, southern, northern and eastern Abyan, claiming that tribal forces repealed their attacks.

Zinjibar attack
As of the end of February, AQAP remained in control of about half of Abyan. In 21 of February, AQAP sized large convoys with weapons by Hadi's government and send them to Lawdar. In February 24, AQAP fighters killed 8 government soldiers, and wounded another 11, in a suicide bombing, in Zinjibar.

AQAP fighting with US and fighting escalation
In March 2, several US drone strikes killed some 5 AQAP fighters in the rural places of Abyan. In March 3, US airstrikes killed the AQAP's Emir of Aden governorate, Osama Haidar, that was traveling in Abyan's Jabal Mugan region in a vehicle alongside 4 of his aids. All of th men in the vehicle died. Also, in the same day, it was reporte by residents that US soldiers landed in the same place, and had a half an hour gunfight with al-Qaeda, after retreating the place in their helicopters. The Pentagon denied these reports. In the same day, a US strikes killed Usayd al-Adani, AQAP's Emir in Abyan, and a longtime AQAP commander. He died alongside Mohamed Tahar who served 7 years in Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In the middle of the night of 4 of March, a drone strike killed two AQAP fighters in Al Maraqisa region, that they were riding in a motorbike. In March 5, AQAP attacked a checkpoint in Shuqrah and Lawdar. In the attack in Lawdar, they killed 5 Hizam troops and one civilian, and in the attacking Shuqrah, they killed 6 Hizam troops and they managed to capture the checkpoint. In 6 of March, AQAP attacked a Hizam troops checkpoint in `Arqub Umm Kubayr village. During the attack,6 Hizam fighters and 5 AQAP militants were killed. Hizam troops managed to hold the checkpoint.In March 8, AQAP arrested two of its fighters in Abyan in accusations that the two, were paid by US to spy on Al-Qaeda commanders, and assist them in conducting airstrikes. In March 9, an AQAP commander named Qasim Khalil killed in a US drone strike in central Abyan. In March 13, Abu Bakr Hussein Salem replaced the widely unpopular Khader Al-Saeedi who has provoked months of angry protests, as governor of Abyan. In March 20, fighting erupted in Lawdar, between Southern Movement fighters, and Houthi rebels. In March 23, AQAP fighters ambushed the son of Deputy Interior Minister, Ali Nasser Lakhma, Commander Nasser Ali Nasser, in Lawdar killing him, and six of his soldiers. The wife of Nasser Ali, and another woman were also wounded. .In the same day, US airstrikes targeted AQAP positions in Al Wade'a District. No reports of casualties emerged. In midnight of March 28, US airstrikes hit again AQAP positions in Mudiyah District, Abyan, killing 4 AQAP fighters. In 29 March, Warships of unknown origin fired missiles again in Mudiyah, causing unknown casualties.2 In 30 March, US fired M224 mortars and airstrikes on AQAP positions in Khanfir District and in Al Wade'a District. In Al Wade'a, the strikes killed two local AQAP commanders, named Waddah Muhammed Amsouda, Abu Obeida Al-Dhamji, and two other AQAP fighters, who was reportedly meeting with others in a house. In 2 of April, Shuqrah Al-Hizam company commander Mahmoud Shamba survived an assassination attempt by AQAP militants at Zinjibar. Also hi stated that the actual forces of Hadi in Abyan, especially in Zinjibar and Shoqrah are only half that listed(which means some 1,800 to 3,000 Hadi loyalists). In April 5, a US drone strike killed an Al-Qaeda provincial official, named Ahmed Ali Saana while he was riding his motorbike in the town of Khabar al Muraqasha in the coast of Abyan. In April 9, AQAP fighters killed one Al-Hizam member whle his was riding in a motorbike in Lawdar, and wounded his aid. The killed officer was Ali Abdul Hakim Daraan, a Hadi loyal that killed an AQAP commander in 2012 in Al Bayda Governorate in revenge of his father killing by AQAP some days before. Its believed that AQAP killed Daraan in retaliation of their dead officer. In the same day, AQAP fighters ambushed colonel Abdul Alim Abdul Jalil of 137th Infantry Brigade in Ahwar, as hi traveled from Aden to the base of his brigade in Al Mahrah Governorate. None of Jalil or his men were killed and all escaped the ambush unharmed. In April 11, the former longtime ally of Hadi in Zinibar and Khanfir, Abdul Latif Al-Sayed, resigned from his post in Hizam brigade, siting organizational failure to fight expanding AQAP forces in Abyan. Afterwards, he took command of UAE-loyal backed Rapid Deployment Force in Abyan.

AQAP-Tribal forces agreement, and continued fighting
Qasim al-Raymi, Al-Qaeda's Emir of Yemen, announced that his group, AQAP, will cease its operations in attacking the West in order to maintain in territorial control in territories its already runs. This, AQAP said, will help them rule without fighting tribal forces, as the agreement was asked by tribal forces in central Yemen to take place, in conditions of AQAP to not attack the west, or provoke it, so tribesmen's homes stay out of US drone strikes. In April 16, US warships shelled AQAP positions in Mudiyah District without leaving casualties. In April 20, Southern resistance fighters repelled Houthi fighters trying to infiltrate in Abyan through Lawdar. No casualties reported. In May 3, AQAP fighters attacked Rapid Deployment Force fighters in Shuqrah, injuring two soldiers. In May 7, two AQAP commanders, Al-Abali and Mukhtar Jami, were found dead in the border region between Abyan and Lahij Governorate. In May 25, a man killed two Hizam soldiers in Ahwar, and then fled. The man later, surrendered himself to authorities. One day later, in May 26, unknown gunmen riding in a motorbike, killed a civilian, named Sami Ahmed Al-Yafei, in Shuqrah.In June 2, AQAP forces ambushed a convoy of an Hadi loyalist official, Bassam Al-Mihdhar. Two soldiers were wounded in the ambush. In June 5, AQAP soldiers killed 2 Al Hizam soldiers in Lawdar, and seized their armed vehicle. In June 6, an AQAP suicide bomber targeted the convoy of Abyan security chief Abdullah Al-Fadhli in Dufas area, killing 2 of his guards, and wounding himself, and his brother, Ali Al-Fadhli.In June 9, Tribals and officials loyal to Hadi, announced their joint coordination between government forces and a number of tribes in the city of Lawdar in the center of the province in order to confront al-Qaeda elements and address them during the coming period. The move came after a meeting chaired by Brig. Gen. Nasser Abed Rabbo Mohammed, commander of the 115th Infantry Brigade in Lawdar, a number of sheikhs, dignitaries and social figures in the city and its environs, to discuss the repercussions of the terrorist attack that targeted Abyan security chief Abdullah Al-Fadhli. In June 10, 2017, Hadi loyalist and Abyan Governor, Abu Bakr Hussein, had a meeting with an AQAP leader in the house of Brig. Faisal Rajab, Tariq Al-Fadhli, a controversial political figure, who was friend with Osama Bin Laden, and later, created one of the first branches of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. After that, he joined Ali Abdullah Saleh. and later joined Southern Movement but at the beginnings of 2010, he re-joined AQAP. In June 13, Ahmad al-Rabizi, a Southern Movement leader, called Hadi loyalist and governor of Abyan, Abu Bakr Hussein to defect to Southern Transitional Council, telling that "Is illogical, all of the other Southern governors to be member of STC, and not the governor of Abyan, letting the later isolated by all other southern provinces." If Abu Bakr accepted or declined is not know. In June 26, clashes erupted between Houthi forces and southern movement in Thira. In June 28, 1 civilian killed, and 2 other wounded when unknown gunmen attacked them in a Qat marked in Zinjibar. In July 2, US drone strikes killed the Chief financial officer of AQAP in Abyan, Ibrahim al-Adani, in Al Wade'a District, alongside one of his aids.