ABYAN, April 25 — Ansar Al-Sharia, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda controlling the cities of Zinjibar and Jaar in Abyan governate, announced in a statement released on Monday that it intends to execute more than 70 captured soldiers, along with several officers, starting next Monday, April 30.

“Ten soldiers will be executed each week,” reads the statement.

“The statement of Ansar Al-Sharia is aimed at dissuading the military campaign against them in Zinjibar,” said military sources in the south of Yemen.

Departing from their usual behavior, Ansar Al-Sharia didn’t release a statement to the media. Instead, they distributed a message to local residents which announced that 70 soldiers would be executed.

“Because the Yemeni Government is not paying attention to the abducted soldiers and officers, they will be treated according to the Islamic law, which states that prisoners are killed, enslaved, ransomed or granted amnesty. So, all the 70 soldiers will be executed,” reads the statement.

Ansar Al-Sharia demanded that the Yemeni government release some of its captured members being held in the Political Security Prison. In return, they will release the soldiers they have abducted. However, the Yemeni government hasn’t responded to the demand.

Ansar Al-Sharia captured more than 70 soldiers and officers, and about 150 soldiers were killed during the bloody clashes that took place in the area of Dofas, to the west of Zinjibar on March 4.

The victim dead soldiers and prisoners are of the 39th Armored Brigade and the 119th Infantry Brigade in the Abyan of the Southern Military Region.

Ansar Al-Sahria will execute the soldiers starting with those who come from areas farthest away from Abyan, according to sources of Ansar Al-Sharia.

Those who are from the areas near to Abyan will be kept until Ansar Al-Sharia get a guarantee that their relatives won’t join the local peoples’ defense committees, groups of local residents established to fight against Ansar Al-Sharia, according to the sources.

Ansar Al-Sharia’s statement squared with the government announcement that the clashes in Abyan will end soon, and Zinjibar will be cleared of Ansar Al-Sharia’s militants.

The military forces claim they control numerous government offices like Abyan’s Post Office, the Youth and Sport Office, and other facilities and markets that were occupied by Ansar Al-Sharia, a military source told the state-run Saba News Agency.

“Many militants affiliated with Ansar Al-Sahria fled from Zinjibar after the heavy attacks they experienced and it will be cleared soon.”

Yet, Ansar Al-Shariah denied that the Yemeni Army controlled the government offices, and affirmed in a statement released to the media on Tuesday that their fighters retaliated and destroyed a military tank.

Ansar Al-Sharia challenged the government to show a photo of soldiers inside government offices in Zinjibar to prove that they control them.

The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms known as HOOD, and Al-Karama Human Rights Organization have called upon Ansar Al-Sharia not to execute the 73 soldiers.

And for its part, the Iraf Human Development Organization has urged the Yemeni government and the Minister of Defense to take appropriate actions to ensure the soldiers’ safety.

Ansar Al-Sharia abducted the soldiers along with a Saudi diplomat and a Swiss female teacher. They demanded the Saudi and Swiss authorities to release Ansar Al-Sharia-affiliated detainees from the political and security prisons, in addition to paying ransom.

The negotiations between Ansar Al-Sharia and some tribal leaders to release Abdullah Al-Khaledi, the Saudi hostage diplomat and Sylvia Abrahat, the Swiss female teacher, failed because of an air attack launched by the Yemeni Air Forces on Tuesday.  

“Serious attempts have been made by the tribal sheiks to release the abducted Swiss woman and the Saudi Vice Consul, but they completely failed because of the air attack,” said Sheikh Tareq Al-Fadhli, a tribal leader in Abyan.

“I negotiated with Ansar Al-Sharia before to release the three abducted French people and they [Ansar Al-Sharia] released them, after receiving millions of dollars in ransom,” he added.