Al-Qaeda and ISIL killings in Yemen lack strategic vision

Experts say al-Qaeda and the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) lack a strategic vision when it comes to their suicide attacks and assassinations in Yemen and seem to be killing just for killing's sake.

“Al-Qaeda and ISIL are not seeking to take control of a certain geographical area [...] because the nature of these groups makes them unprepared to govern," said Mohammed Azzan, a researcher specialising in extremist groups.

"They know nothing other than to kill, assassinate and plant bombs,” he told Al-Mashareq, adding that their previous attempts to control particular areas of the country have utterly failed.

Recent examples of the groups' attacks include a wave of ISIL suicide bombings targeting Yemeni troops that killed at least 42 people in al-Mukalla on June 27th.

In the first attack, a suicide bomber on a motorbike asked soldiers if he could eat with them before blowing himself up. Two other bombers approached soldiers on foot elsewhere in the city before detonating their explosives. Shortly afterwards, two suicide bombers launched a fourth attack and blew themselves up at the entrance of an army camp.

On July 6th, 15 to 20 al-Qaeda fighters wearing military uniforms stormed the airport headquarters of al-Solban military camp for special forces in Aden. They detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the camp, then blew up a second vehicle inside, killing at least 10 soldiers.

As for the true motives behind the attacks by al-Qaeda and ISIL, Azzan said, “terrorist groups are motivated by certain ideologies that drive them to commit such acts, and they think that targeting people that oppose them is a goal in and of itself rather than a means towards achieving something else".

"Killing, for them, is a victorious act in itself,” he said.

These groups have no vision aside from committing these acts, Azzan said, as “they consider that by resorting to murder, they have achieved their objective".

This is "an understanding that is closer to idiocy than to intelligence", he added.

No political or moral convictions

“The nature of armed groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL is one of chaos and absurdity without any strategic goal other than killing and murdering innocent people,” political analyst Mohammed al-Ghabri told Al-Mashareq.

He said that anyone following the activities of these two groups will see that they "want to subvert the provisional authority there because an atmosphere of war and conflict is conducive to their operations”.

“Armed groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL have no political or moral convictions that define their suicide missions or attacks," al-Ghabiri noted. "They are more aimless and only seek to kill as part of a publicity campaign that merely seeks to establish on-the-ground presence."

Political analyst Tariq al-Zuraiqi said the absence of a central state has helped armed extremist groups thrive.

“These groups dream of taking over certain geographical areas and establishing their so-called state, but their ideologies and principles do not help realise these dreams," he said, pointing out their failures in Abyan, Hadramaut and Shabwa.

These failures have led these groups to resort "to a chaotic approach based on killing via assassinations and suicide attacks for the sole purpose of murder”, he added, noting that al-Qaeda and ISIL are pursuing publicity rather than seeking to establish a real presence on the ground.