Leader of al-Qaeda militants in Yemen declared "Jihad" against the Houthi-led northern Shiite fighters, in an audio message posted on the internet by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Friday.
"To our Wahhabi fellows in northern Yemeni provinces of Saada, Al- Jouf and Amran, we (AQAP) announced jihad (holy war) against Houthi Shiites" Saeed Ali al-Shihri, deputy leader of the Yemen-based AQAP.
"The jihad against northern Shiites has been declared since the implementation of the AQAP's twin killed car bombing attacks against innocent convoys of the Shiite followers in northern provinces of Al-Jouf and Saada on Nov. 24 and Nov. 26 of the last year," he said.
In the 17-minute audiotape, the Saudi fugitive al-Shihri justified his group's war against the Shiite fighters by claiming that the sectarian-motivated Houthis attacked and displaced many Wahhabi militants in the north.
Last December, the Wahhabi-devoted AQAP claimed responsibility for twin suicide car bombings against convoys of the Shiite fighters' followers in northern provinces of Al-Jouf and Saada on Nov. 24 and Nov. 26, 2010, which left over than 90 Shiite followers martyred, including the group's Shiite spiritual leader Bader al-Deen al- Houthi.
Yemen has witnessed sporadic battles since 2004 between government troops and Houthis. The government has been accusing the Houthis of seeking to re-establish the clerical rule overthrown by the Yemeni revolution in 1962 that created the Yemeni republic.
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