A message directed from the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Khaled Batarfi, to the members of the organization, revealed the assigning Abu al-Hasan al-Sulaymani, to lead the organization in Marib. In a move, that Al-Sulaymani became public, after he had been secretly active with ISIS throughout the past decades, who is Abu Al-Hassan Sulaymani? Where he’s from and what is the aspects of his activity?
According to the information, Abu al-Hassan al-Sulaymani, also known as Abu al-Hassan al-Marabi, and Abu al-Hassan al-Masri, he is Mustafa Hassan al-Sulaymani, belongs to the Arab Republic of Egypt, and he fled from it 40 years ago to Yemen, after his name appeared in the list of those accused of assassinating the Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat.
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Information confirms that Sulaymani arrived in Marib, began working as a farmer, and married there from the family of Al-Waheit, and he started the recruitment activity by the encouragement of Awad Al-Arada, one of the Brotherhood fighters who killed in Afghanistan, Khaled Al-Arada, who is currently wanted on the American list of terrorism, as well as with the encouragement of Awad bin Maaili and Ali bin Hassan bin Gharib.
Soon, support began to arrive from Muslim Brotherhood to establish a religious education center. He chose Fleifel area, one of the villages of in al-Rashid Munif in the Marib district, and he chose this area because it was far from population at the time, and bought lands there to establish his own farms.
Sulaymani did not begin to activate Brotherhood’s ideology, lest he would be persecuted. Moreover, he began to teach the culture of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, until his differences with the Salafi leader Abu Abd al-Rahman Yahya al-Hajuri emerged because of his relationship with Brotherhood. Al-Hujouri said in a statement that Sulaymani made a difference in the curriculum of the Sunnis, in which he get out from their known origins. Where he seeks to bring together all sects within the framework of Sunnis, and he uses the funds of Al-Berr association to gather his supporters, and so on from intellectual and behavioral charges.
Sulaymani’s association with al-Qaeda was officially known in 2002, specifically after confrontations between the security forces and a number of his foreign students in Marib. A few days later, the political security objected about 70 students at the Hadith Center, who had just come from Arab Maghreb countries and Indonesia to support al-Marabi at that time..
A number of Al-Marabi students remained in the Political Security prison, before Al-Maribi arrived in Sana’a at the time to demand their release. It had close ties with leaders in the previous regime, who used it as an entry point to blackmail the international community.
The year 2004 was the point of Sulaymani’s relationship emergence with brotherhood, as he was associated with Al-Hikmah Alymaniah association, affiliated to the Salafi brotherhood wing, which was active in different regions of Yemen, he “made announced Alliance, in Wadi Hadramout, at August 8, 2004, written by Sheikh Saad Al-Hamid (from the scholars of Saudi Arabia) with the signature of Sheikh Abi Al-Hassan Al-Marabi on the one hand, and Sheikh Ahmed Al-Moallem, Secretary General of Al-Hikmah association in Hadhramaut, from the other side, in the presence of the most prominent leaders of the association in the provinces of Ibb and Taiz. After that, the effects of that alliance appeared through the joint activities between the two sides, and sometimes reached the point of identification.
In parallel, Sulaymani had begun establishing the military side and training, specifically in the farms of brotherhood leaders linked to Al-Qaeda, such as Ayed al-Shabwani, Ali bin Hassan bin Gharib and the Al-Arada family, brotherhood leaders linked to Al-Qaeda trained on his hands during this period, most notably Nasser Mabrouk bin Raqeeb, Abu Mursal Al-Qatrani, Saleh Al-Rousa, Muhammad bin Rasiya, Saeed Al-Afraa and others.
Perhaps what made Sulaymani hide his affiliation to the brotherhood more than 20 years was his endeavor to contain all Salafi sects, receive support from organizations in Saudi Arabia, and his association with the Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who was communicating with him through Wahhabi leader, Muslih al-Athala.
Likewise, he was publicly showing that he supported Ali Abdullah Saleh, to gain him as a cover for his activity in Marib, and the latter granted him citizenship, in recommendation and request of some of Marib sheikhs.
Sulaymani was only able to return to Egypt only in Mohamed Morsi presidency, stayed there for a while and then returned to Yemen.
Sulaymani was accused of training a number of internationally wanted Al-Qaeda operatives.
And on top of them is the Nigerian terrorist Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Eve, 2009. At the time, the international media shed light on the terrorist camps in Yemen. One of the most prominent things that it was mentioned the camps run by Abu Al-Hassan Sulaymani, fearing that the matter will develop, and Sulaimani will be on the list of international terrorism, Sulaimani issued fatwa entitled “(Strengthening the fatwa of Salafi Da’wa scholars in Yemen about al-Qaeda), to continue his activities and appear militarily in public in 2012, Kitaf battle between Houthis and extremist Salafists, where he sent Yemeni and foreign fighters to reinforce (Al-Ebadah and and Al-Atala) from marib.
With the start of war in Yemen, Al-Marabi took advantage from the situation to obtain arms and money from Saudi coalition, and he participated in the military confrontations in Marib 2015.
According to information, he hosted the former Al-Qaeda leader Qassem Al-Rimi repeatedly at his headquarters in Marib, and he was the most prominent candidate to succeed him, before the members of the organization pledged allegiance to Khaled Batarfi.
Training places..
Information obtained by dailyyemen, from reliable sources confirms that Al-Marbi uses his farm in Al-Erkeen area in Wadi Obaida as a secret headquarters for training Al-Qaeda elements and managing military affairs, and he holds his secret meetings in the buildings distributed on the farm with top leaders of the organization.