Who is killing Yemen's clerics? Mystery murders are sending a chill through the mosques.
ADEN, Yemen — A white Toyota Corolla pulled up next to Safwan al-Sharjabi as he walked along a crowded road one evening this spring after buying medicine for his mother, witnesses recalled. A man stepped out the car and fired at least four bullets into the slender, goateed cleric. He fell to the ground, blood pooling from his lower back.
Sharjabi became the latest Muslim cleric to die in a long series of unsolved murders. As many as 27 clerics have been killed in the past two years in Aden and nearby areas.
“Most people in the neighborhood knew Safwan and listened to his sermons,” said Mohammed Abdullah, 32, the pharmacy owner who saw the car speeding away. “He was influential. That’s the reason they killed him.”
But who killed him remains a mystery, though speculation runs rife. No group has claimed responsibility for any of the assassinations, and no perpetrators have been arrested.
The pace of the assaults has increased sharply since October with 15 clerics killed, including two last month, according to Yemeni officials and members of the religious community. All were attacked in drive-by shootings or killed near their mosques. Scores of other clerics have fled the city, and yet others have limited their working hours to stay alive.
In this chaotic southern Yemeni city, where local government is barely functioning and rival gunmen rule the streets, clerics have filled a leadership vacuum. As prominent community leaders, they now compete for authority with ambitious militias, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. And that has made the clerics targets.
“With each killing, society is being weakened,” said Leila Shabibi, a Yemeni human rights and democracy activist. “The clerics were effective leaders in their communities. They solved disputes and gave advice. They were their communities’ teachers and spokesmen.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/who-is-killing-yemens-clerics-mystery-murders-are-sending-a-chill-through-the-mosques/2018/08/27/10b7da3c-ce0f-49e2-ad8e-d4adf05ef885_story.html
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