Aden residents decry ISIS attacks, practices

Residents of Yemen's temporary capital Aden say they are living in a nightmare after the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) conducted a spree of brutal attacks that claimed the lives of many.

"People associate ISIS with death, destruction and scattered corpses," Aden resident Alia Mohammed told Al-Mashareq.

Mohammed's brother was killed in an ISIS suicide attack that targeted new police recruits in front of the house of Maj. Gen. Abdullah al-Subaihi in the Khormaksar neighbourhood of Aden on May 23rd, 2016.

"My mother’s grief over the loss of her son led to her death seven months later," Mohammed said.

ISIS has become a "living nightmare" for locals as a result of their terrorist and suicide operations, she said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for a car bombing that Yemeni security sources said killed 10 people, including civilians, at a security post in Aden on November 14th.

"Eight members of the security forces and two civilians were killed in a car bombing in the central district of Abdul Aziz," Aden's security chief Brig. Shalal Shaya said.

On November 6th, Yemeni forces ended a hostage crisis with 29 police and six civilians dead.

An attack claimed by ISIS began the day before, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrances to the criminal investigations unit in Khormaksar and the city's security headquarters.

They set the investigations unit on fire and took hostages after killing two policewomen execution-style, AFP reported.

'Scenes of slaughter, murder and destruction'

ISIS elements' slaughtering of policewomen in that attack "horrified us female government employees in Aden", said Najwa Salem, a public sector employee.

She called on the international community to help Yemen eradicate ISIS "as the group is a threat to all".

Salem said she associates ISIS with "scenes of slaughter, murder and destruction".

"What is tragic is that they say they are doing all of this in the name of Islam, which has nothing to do with them."

"ISIS is one of the reasons behind the destruction in Yemen and has resulted in the country living in a frightful darkness," said Qassim al-Mahbashi, deputy dean of Aden University's humanities college.

"I renounce terrorism in all its forms and ISIS is committing the worst kind," he told Al-Mashareq.

ISIS is exploiting the conflict in Yemen to wreak havoc in the country and brainwash the youth into carrying out its destructive agenda, he said.

Clerics promote moderate thought

Sheikh Mohammed al-Wali, director-general of the Office of Religious Endowments and Guidance in Aden, told Al-Mashareq clerics and murshids (religious counselors) are risking their lives to confront extremist thought.

Sheikh Yassin al-Adani, the imam of Zayed mosque in Aden's Abdel Aziz neighbourhood, was assassinated by gunmen using an explosive device on October 10th "because he was spearheading an awareness campaign [against extremists] in prisons", al-Wali said.

"Our job is to confront terrorism and those that espouse extremist ideology," he said.

"We condemn not only with words, but with action, by visiting mosques or prisons to raise awareness about the dangers of terrorism among those who were radicalised and captured by the security forces," al-Wali said.

There are regular campaigns implemented by preachers and religious counselors from the Office of Endowments and Guidance, he said.

"We have 30 counselors who are raising awareness about the dangers of terrorism," he said, noting that they implement an anti-terrorism campaign that averages three sessions a week per mosque.

"Our priority is to fight terrorism and extremism and enlighten society about its dangers to the individual and society alike, by doing field visits to mosques across Aden," he said.