Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said it was offering three kilograms of gold for the killing of the US ambassador in Sana’a, Gerald Feierstein, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group said, citing an audio released by militants.
AQAP will also pay 5m rials ($ 23,350) to whoever kills any American soldier in Yemen, it said.
The offer, valid for six months, was made “to encourage our Muslim Ummah (nation), and to expand the circle of the jihad (holy war) by the masses,” SITE said, citing the audio.
AQAP, mostly militants from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, is regarded by the United States as the most dangerous branch of the network founded by Osama bin Laden.
In September, AQAP urged Muslims to step up protests and kill US diplomats in Muslim countries over a film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him), which it said was another chapter in the “crusader wars” against Islam.
The film provoked an outcry among Muslims, who deem any depiction of the Prophet as blasphemous and triggered violent attacks on embassies in countries in Asia and the Middle East.
Four US officials including the ambassador to Libya were killed in the aftermath. The Pentagon said it had sent a platoon of Marines to Yemen after demonstrators stormed the US Embassy in Sana’a. A US ally, Yemen is struggling against challenges on many fronts since mass protests forced veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February after decades in power.
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government is trying to re-establish order and unify the army.
Washington, which has pursued a campaign of assassination by drone and missile against suspected al Qaeda members, backed a military offensive in May to recapture areas of Abyan province. But militants have struck back with a series of bombings and killings.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s main oil pipeline, damaged in repeated bombings by armed men, resumed pumping crude yesterday after repairs, sources at state-run Safer oil company and the oil ministry said.
The Yemeni army has launched an assault in recent weeks using tanks and rockets on tribesmen who were blocking repairs to the Maarib oil pipeline, which was last blown up in November.
A source at the oil ministry said that around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Marib light crude were being pumped to the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea.
“The quantity will be sent to Aden refinery to cover the needs of the local market,” the source said. Before a spate of attacks which began in 2011, the 270-mile Maarib pipeline carried around 110,000 bpd to Ras Isa.
The refinery has a capacity of 150,0000 bpd and resumed output in August.
