Arc of Convergence: AQAP, Ansar al-Shari’a and the Struggle for Yemen

T he may 21, 2012, suicide attack on Yemeni soldiers parading in Sana`a’s al-Sabin Square marked a turning point in Yemen’s struggle against al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and its subsidiary, Ansar al-Shari`a. Coming two weeks after Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s pledge to purge terrorists from “every district, village, and place,”1 the perpetrators cast the bombing as a retaliatory strike. “The primary target of this blessed operation was the defense minister of the Sana`a regime and his corrupt entourage,” proclaimed Ansar al-Shari`a’s Madad News Agency. “It came in response to the unjust war launched by the Sana`a regime’s forces in cooperation with the American and Saudi forces.”2