Al-Sabiha .. The south side, will it withstand the strikes and the penetration projects?

English - Tuesday 14 September 2021 الساعة 11:14 am
Lahj, NewsYemen, private:

The incident of the killing of the young man, Abdul Malik Al-Sanbani, at one of the security points in the Tor Al-Baha district, in the Lahj governorate, has shed light on the situation in the Al-Sabiha areas, and the scale of targeting it has recently been exposed to.

Far from the details of the incident, however, some reactions took it away from its criminal nature, and away from the political aspect, as the point that witnessed the incident belongs to a military force affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, and looked at it from a tribal angle by inserting the name of the Sabihah tribes into the incident and considering it a “black defect.”

This is what Sheikh Jalal Abdul Qawi Shaher, the sheikh of Al-Sabiha sheikhs hastened, who condemned the incident and called on the security authorities to quickly hand the accused over to the judiciary, warning at the same time against “attempting to divert the crime’s path to a tribal and regional logic from some ignorant and paid trumpets of sedition and exploiting them to offend the sons of Al-Sabiha.” 

The warning of the sheikh of Al-Sabiha sheikhs stems from the fact that the incident came in the context of the turbulent security situation in the Al-Sabiha areas recently, with which it has become like a state of total chaos, in which killings have emerged and a revival of revenge and disputes between the Sabihah tribes in a way that raises doubts about the existence of parties supporting this chaotic scene.

The latest killings in the Tur Al Baha district were on Saturday evening, when two people were killed in the district center after a quarrel between them escalated into shooting, while clashes are still going on between the Atawiyyin and Mamiya tribes, with all attempts to stop them failing.

The failure to stop these clashes prompted the Director General of the Tur al-Baha District, who is close to the Brotherhood, Abd al-Raqib al-Bukiri, to demand a number of military units that are located in al-Sabiha areas or led by leaders of their sons to intervene and stop them.

The parties that Al-Bukiri demanded to intervene are: the Sabiha Security Belt, led by Brigadier General Wadah Omar Saeed, the 2nd Brigade Amalek, led by the prominent leader in Sabiha Sheikh Hamdi Shukri, the 17th Infantry Brigade, led by the governor, Major General Ahmed Turki and located in the Khattabiya area, and the 4th Hazm Brigade, led by Brigadier General Wafi Al-Ghabs.  Which is in charge of the confrontation with the Houthi militia on the Haifan and Al-Qubeita fronts, the 9th Brigade Saiqa led by Brigadier General Farouk Al-Kalouli (to whom the point accused of the killing of the young man Al-Sanbani belongs), the 8th Brigade of the Border Guard, led by Brigadier General Yasser Al-Sumli and newly formed by the Transitional Council.

The deterioration of the security situation in Al-Sabiha despite the number of military formations led by the people of the region and present in it, highlights the complexities of the scene there, and the multiplicity of loyalties of the leaders of these formations between the transitional and legitimacy and what is in between.  Heterogeneity between them, and agreement on a clear vision to share the task of securing it.

This was clearly expressed by the commander of the Second Giants Brigade, Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, in a statement issued by his media office regarding the incident of the killing of the young man, in which he touched on the tension that occurred between his forces and the Security Belt forces in June last year due to the dispute over taking over the duties of securing the center of the Tur Al Baha district.

Brigadier-General Shukri said: "When we were in charge of matters in the line of Tur Al-Baha, we would pursue outlaws, arrest them, and put them in prisons.

However, he added, "But unfortunately, we were fought by some leaders and some media professionals from inside and outside the country and some sheikhs for two reasons, one of which is that some are making sustenance from these actions, so we find him the protector who protected them, and some are envious of themselves and think that we are competing with them in leadership positions or the Council of Sheikhs."

The dispute ended on that day with the director of the directorate’s request for the two parties to withdraw from the directorate’s center and hand it over to Public Security and withdraw the points affiliated with them, to return today and appeal to them to intervene to stop the fighting between the Atawiyin tribe and the Ma’amiya.

What is remarkable about the directorate’s request is that he included the name of the commander of the Tur al-Baha axis, the 4th Jabli Infantry Brigade, led by the Brotherhood’s Brigadier General / Abu Bakr al-Jaboli, among the list of military units he demanded to intervene;  Although there is no presence in the Sabeha areas.

Which brings to the fore the story of the Brotherhood’s establishment of this axis, led by al-Jabouli, as a tool to penetrate al-Sabiha areas, by trying to upholster its sons within this axis and exploiting the differences and revenge among its tribes, and the beginning was by trying to exploit the return of fighting between the Sumitah and Atawiyin tribes.

Al-Jabouli tried to attract figures from the Atawiyyin tribe and support them to find a military position in their areas under the pretext of confronting the STC’s support for Al-Sumaita, and instigating the establishment of a security point affiliated with the Atawiyyids under the pretext of the presence of a Al-Sumaita point, which is the point affiliated with the Ninth Sa’iqa Brigade, which is the same that witnessed the recent killing of Al-Sanbani.

The interconnectedness of the scene in Al-Sabiha and its complexities indicate the extent of the internal challenges and external conspiracies faced by its regions, amid recent calls for the establishment of the “Sabiha region” and its promotion as an independent entity that extends over an area of 10,000 km2 and includes the most important site for Yemen and the south, which is Bab al-Mandab, which transmits the Subaihi scene.  To a regional and international level open to all possibilities.