The security situation in Yemen is fragile -- but in recent days it has been even more so. Al-Qaeda militants seized a city near the capital, threatening plans for President Saleh to step down. Although he has now left the country and the militants have abandoned the city, there is continued fighting and questions about the future.

It wasn't so much the black banner of al-Qaeda that was fluttering in the wind above the old mosque. Far more sinister was the ease with which the dozens of fighters had been able to sneak into the city. But perhaps "sneak" is too strong a word. "It's quite possible that soldiers even welcomed them," says a local journalist, describing the situation in Radda, a city of 60,000 that has been under al-Qaeda control since Jan. 16.

Radda is a two-hour drive southeast of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. The tourism ministry promotes the city as a popular tourist destination, with its brick buildings, the country's oldest surviving citadel and the palace-like 16th-century Amiriya Mosque.

On Jan. 14, about 20 visitors unexpectedly turned up at the mosque and began their afternoon prayers. It didn't seem to bother them that the mosque had been closed for years as it underwent renovations for future tour groups. But tourism was not on al-Qaeda's agenda.

"We asked them not to break anything at the mosque and not to break off any branches from the trees. Their leader, Tariq al-Dahab, promised to comply," said Jahiya al-Nusairi, the local official in charge of historic preservation. Al-Nusairi added that the al-Qaeda militants held a Koran reading, hoisted their black flag and then withdrew to the citadel.

After that, while government offices, businesses and schools were closed, the prison was opened. According to one resident, local police offered no resistance and surrendered their weapons, stations and vehicles to the rebels. Local tribal leaders negotiated with the armed militants, while young men drove around the streets in the commandeered police cars. At the same time, a civil rights activist told the Agence France-Presse, a demonstration against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's ruler since 1978, was held as planned.

Accusations of Regime's Cooperation With al-Qaeda

The largely peaceful takeover by al-Qaeda militants of the provincial city of Radda, which practically stands at the gates of the country's capital, is not so much evidence of the strength of the terrorist network. Rather, it is an indication of how complex the current balance of power in Yemen is.

The leader of the militant group, Tariq al-Dahab, is a brother-in-law of Anwar al-Awlaki, the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who was killed in a CIA drone attack in late September. The organization claims to control a number of small cities in the sparsely populated southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwah.

Al-Dahab himself was arrested some time ago in Syria while attempting to cross the border into Iraq. The government in Damascus reportedly extradited him to Yemen recently. The opposition sees this as evidence of secret cooperation between the Saleh regime and al-Qaeda.

"We hold the security and military forces responsible for having facilitated access for the fighters," said Mohammed Nassir, one of the sheiks of Radda. "It's one of the regime's tricks."

Regime opponents claim that AQAP and its fighters are being used to justify keeping the old regime and its support structure in place for as long as possible. It is a theory that is shared by Khaled al-Dahab, the brother of the al-Qaeda commander, who apologized for the attack on Radaa and told the Saudi-owned television news broadcaster al-Arabiya that it had been "coordinated with senior officials in the national security council, the Republican Guard and the former interior minister, as well."

Playing For Time

In November, bowing to pressure from Gulf countries, President Saleh signed an agreement with the opposition to transfer power to his vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and hold presidential elections on Feb. 21. The only candidate in the elections would be Hadi, the current transitional president, who is then supposed to govern the country for two years.

Since signing the agreement, however, Saleh has been playing for time in an effort to hold onto the fruits of his decades-long rule. In early January, the cabinet submitted a draft bill to the parliament stipulating that it must grant immunity to Saleh and "all those who worked with him in the various institutions."

The proposal brought members of the civil rights movement in Sanaa back into the streets -- and the old regime promptly used these actions to its own advantage. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said that if the security situation continued to deteriorate, it might be necessary -- "regrettably," he hastened to add -- to postpone the election.

But on Sunday, Saleh left Yemen for Oman and will reportedly continue on to the United States in the next few days to receive medical treatment for burns he sustained when his palace mosque was bombed last year. The United States, it has been reported, only granted Saleh a visa after he promised he would not seek to remain in the U.S. Saleh has said he plans to return to Yemen to head his political party after his treatment, though there has been speculation that a third country, where Saleh could live in exile, is being sought. Before leaving, Saleh formerly handed over power to Hadi, his vice president.

A City Celebrates

Last Friday, Yemeni troops surrounded Radda but held off from attacking the city, allegedly due to worries about damaging its historic buildings. The occupiers promised to leave the city on the condition that the Islamic legal code Shariah be introduced there and that a number of detained fellow militants, including another brother of al-Dahab, be released.

On Tuesday, al-Dahab and his men surprised many by peacefully abandoning the city. Ahmed al-Kalz, a tribal leader, told Reuters that they did so after receiving promises that 15 militants held by the intelligence service would be freed and that a new council would be set up in the city that would follow Yemeni laws. "The negotiators told Dahab that all the laws of Yemen are based on Islamic law and that there is no contradiction in that," al-Kalz said.

The following day, city residents celebrated the al-Qaeda group's withdrawal in the streets. That same day, fresh clashes in southern Yemen reportedly left six al-Qaeda militants dead and 10 government soldiers wounded.

Intellpuke: You can read this article by Spiegel journalist Alexander Smoltczyk in context here: www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,811134,00.html
This article was translated from the German for Spiegel by Christopher Sultan.