Middle east oil geopolitics, page-180

Reuters 20/2

Another town in the south of Yemen has fallen to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

In the last few weeks AQAP has made gains on most of the south of Yemen including the towns of Azzan, Zinjibar and now Ahwar. They already controlled the southern important southern port of Al Mukalla.

It wasn't all that clear from the report I posted last week but I think Taiz fell to the Houthis so the war there could easily rage between the Houthis and AQAP even after the withdrawal of the Saudi led US mercenary forces.

As I've discussed before, despite the reports from western media saying that AQAP are linked to the Paris attacks, the Saudi alliance have not really focussed their war against them in Yemen because they are Sunnis and although they are proclaimed enemies of the Saudis the Saudis need them to help fight the Houthis and probably believe they can win them over later if the Houthis can be defeated. The main casualties that AQAP have faced in Yemen are from US drone strikes and we all know that the only ones calling the shots in the US military are the US commanders. I doubt that these drone attacks are coordinated very much with the military actions of the Saudis. More likely that the US navy doesn't like the idea of Al Qaeda controlling the southern coastal towns of Yemen. After all the USS Cole was destroyed in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000 by an Al Qaeda attack  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole_bombing ). Eshmun

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0VT0AK