ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On December 2, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced that it has formed a Sharia committee from six Sheikhs that will work to solve the problems between HTS and  al-Qaeda members arrested by the HTS leadership on November 27 . According to the official HTS statement, the committee will release all Al-Qaeda leaders after guarantying that the both sides will not work against each other anymore. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had accused HTS and its leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani of betraying their oath of allegiance (bayat) to al-Qaeda in an official 35-minute audio message on November 28. Al-Zawahiri also revealed that al-Qaeda didn’t release HTS from its allegiance to it yet. When HTS arrested al-Qaeda members, many Syrian activists warned that HTS’s only goal is to distance from al-Qaeda. This may help the terrorist group to get the support from the Western block as the main “opposition” power. Experts also doubted that the HTS leadership could dare to take serious measur...

The Yemeni capital, Sana’a, witnessed heavy clashes between the Houthis and the supporters of their ally – former Yemen President Ali Abdallah Saleh – during the last three days, according to Yemeni sources. Several fighters from the both sides were killed or injured as a result of the clashes. On December 2, Yemeni sources reported that the clashes between Abdallah Saleh supporters and the Houthis spreaded into Hajjah province and several other areas. The clashes between the two allies first broke out on November 29 when the Houthis attacked and captured the Saleh mosque in Sana’a. The  site was used by Abdallah Saleh supporters as a HQ, according to local sources. The main motive of the Houthis is still unknown, and many experts claimed that it is nothing more than a “show of power”, especially that the Houthis withdraw from the mosque hours later. Abdallah Saleh criticize the Houthis, and said that he is ready to talk with the Saudi-led coalition on December 2. Many Ye...