Yemeni activists urged street protesters on Monday not to raise banners of Osama bin Laden to avoid triggering a harsher crackdown on demonstrations seeking democratic change in the al Qaeda leader's ancestral homeland. Bin Laden was killed in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan on Monday, ending a nearly 10-year world-wide manhunt for the leader of the global Islamist militant network that orchestrated the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Tens of thousands of Yemeni protesters have camped out for three months in public squares across the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state to demand the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled autocratically for nearly 33 years and has long been a US ally in the fight against al Qaeda.
"We expect Saleh's regime to work to use al Qaeda as evidence to confront the protests demanding his departure, but we will expose attempts like this," said Meshaal Mujahid, an activist. Another protester said he hoped the death of bin Laden would not detract from the mission of protesters.
"We are not working with al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. We have one cause and it is the fall of the regime. This is what matters to us," said Mohammed Saad, a protester in Sanaa. "To those in the protest squares across the governorates of the republic: Do not get absorbed by the matter of the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden," Yemeni protest organisers advised followers in a message on Facebook. "Do not raise pictures or banners or mention bin Laden, as the (Yemeni) regime is planning now to exploit this issue for its interests," it added, urging recipients to spread the word.
Western and Gulf allies of Yemen have tried but so far failed to mediate an end to its political crisis, which they fear could trigger chaos that would give more room for an active Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda to operate.
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