Murder attempt on tribal chief in Sana’a [Archives:2005/865/Front Page]
Hassan Al-Zaidi
Sana'a, 3rd August Yemen Times: An armed group shot at Sheikh / abdullah Hassan Aliraqi one of the chiefs of Hamdan tribe, General Secretary of local governance and head of PGC in Aljof governorate at around 2 pm in front of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Sana'a yesterday.
This incident comes as a result of a conflict between Hamdan tribe, which the Sheikh is one of its prominent leaders and the Al-Shawlan tribe in Marib Governorate which is lead by Skeikh Al-Okimi, an MP of Islah party.
Sever fighting erupted between the two tribes at the beginning of last month in which all sorts of weapons were used. The conflict between the two tribes goes back to 25 years over land boarders between the two tribes causing more than 70 deaths over the years.
Reports say that there was dense shooting at the Sheikh motorcade. Sources say that he might not survive it. Worth mentioning is that this incident comes just two days after the release of the Sheikh from a state detention.
On the same front, last month the president had ordered the detention of 5 of the Sheikhs of Shawlan, of which was Amin Al-Okimi and other five sheikhs from Hamdan tribe and Hassan Abdullah Al-Iraqi. They are still detained in the ministry of defense in order to allow an appeasement between the two tribes. While a tribal source said that the security authorities detained the tribal chiefs without any effort to end the conflict between the two tribes. Although the President had assigned Sheikh Jabir Al-Handosi, one of Aljof chiefs to resolve the dispute. The two sides accepted him as an arbitrator.
Sources expected that this incidence will renew the clashes between the two sides. It is now clear that revenge actions are targeting tribal chiefs.
A detained sheikh said that he advised the Interior Minister not to release Sheikh Al-Iraqi, because there are tribal elements who want to trigger the conflict between the two tribes. Authorities confirm that they released him in order that he would attend the local elections of the PGC in his Governorate.
Aljof Governorate had witnessed a number of armed conflicts this year. Of these is another bloody fighting between the tribes of Al-Sidah and Al-Marazi, one of the great tribes in Al-jof.The casualties of that bloody conflict mounted to28 deaths in one day besides 36 injuries. The problem is still unresolved between the two sides.
It worth saying that, these developments escalated in the wake of the return of Mp Amin Al-okimi Who used to be secluding himself in Saudi Arabia for two years, because of his differences with the authorities.
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