Aden-Abyan Islamic Army

The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, most recognized for its involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, is allegedly affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The Yemen-based group has been implicated in several acts of terror since the late 1990s.

Aden-Abyan was formed sometime in 1996 or 1997 as a loose guerrilla network of a few dozen [Page 10]men, with a mix of veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war and Islamists from various countries. In May 1998 the group issued the first of a series of political and religious statements on Yemeni and world affairs. In December 1998, Aden-Abyan kidnapped a party of 16 Western tourists in southern Yemen, 4 of whom later died during a botched rescue by Yemeni security forces. Group leader Abu al Hassan al Mihdar was executed for his role in the kidnappings.

Numerous connections have been drawn between Aden-Abyan and the al Qaeda network. After the 1998 attack on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Aden-Abyan claimed they were a “heroic operation carried out by heroes of the jihad.” Later, following an American raid on Osama bin Laden's camp in Afghanistan, Aden-Abyan announced their support for him and asked Yemeni people to kill Americans and destroy their property. It is also believed that Aden-Abyan ran a training camp in a remote part of southern Yemen; when the government tried to close it, a bin Laden representative attempted to intervene.

In October 2000 two suicide bombers aligned with Aden-Abyan exploded their boat alongside the USS Cole, then in port in Aden. Most experts agree that the attack was the combined work of Aden-Abyan and al Qaeda. One day after the Cole incident, a bomb was lobbed into the British Embassy, shattering windows at both the embassy and nearby buildings. Four members of Aden-Abyan were later sentenced for the embassy bombing.

Aden-Abyan also claimed responsibility for the October 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker, which killed a crew member. As with the Cole, the tanker was attacked by a small boat laden with explosives. The following June, Aden-Abyan operatives attacked a military medical convoy, triggering a substantial military response. That October, the leader of Aden-Abyan, Khalid Abd al Nabi, surrendered to Yemeni authorities.

The Yemeni government claims that Aden-Abyan no longer exists. U.S. terrorism experts, on the other hand, believe it likely that some form of the group still does exist, but as a loose, less organized band of Yemenis and non-Yemenis. In general, though, foreign involvement in jihad activity in Yemen has been decreasing as a result of more stringent security.