AQAP denies senior leaders were killed

AQAP again references the U.S.-backed raid in Abyan province on Dec. 17, which witnesses say killed dozens of women and children. It has become something of a rallying cry for the group. And it accuses the Yemeni government of "collaboration" with Western powers.

Through these claims, the collaborative Yemeni government seeks to prove a false victory that can be presented as an offering to Obama and Brown and their allies at the London conference. It wants to show that it has the ability to eliminate the mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula; the goal of the Yemeni officials is to receive bribes from the Western powers by selling the blood of Muslim women and children in the peninsula of Mohammed.

Obviously it's impossible to vet AQAP's statement -- much like the government's original claim that Rimi and Shabwani had been killed. Mareb Press reported last night (عربي) that senior AQAP members met for dinner at Shabwani's house in Marib province; Rimi was among the attendees, and the report says he was wounded.

Yemen's interior minister, Muttahar al-Masri, today threatened (عربي) al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with more strikes. He blamed the media for "exaggerating and inflating" reports of insecurity in Yemen (why do we get blamed for everything?).