linked group Sunday freed 73 Yemeni soldiers it captured during a major assault in the south of the country last month, residents said, after mediation by religious scholars and tribal elders. Residents of the southern town of Jaar, controlled by group members who call themselves Ansar Al-Shariah (Partisans of Islamic Law), saw the soldiers being let out of the school building where they were being held. In a statement, the group said Nasser Al-Wuhayshi, the leader of Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, had authorized their release after negotiations with tribal elders and religious scholars who visited Jaar. Wuhayshi's involvement is further evidence of Ansar Al-Shariah's links to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It was not clear what, if anything, the group had been offered in return for the soldiers' release. Not long after their capture, it threatened to harm the soldiers unless the Yemeni government released some militants from jail. A Yemeni journalist at the handover said the group had explained they were freeing the soldiers “for the sake of God” and in response to the appeals of the captives' families and local tribal mediators. “The militants invited local journalists, tribal mediators, human rights activists and the soldiers' relatives to their stronghold, Jaar, to attend the ceremony,” said Wajdi Al-Shaib. “The soldiers are now with their families on the way to Aden”. Militants have exploited a year of political upheaval to firm their foothold in Yemen, especially in the south, where they have seized swathes of territory and launched frequent attacks on security forces. Militants have sought to gain popularity by pledging to restore security, the rule of law and services which have deteriorated over the past year of civil unrest. The soldiers were taken hostage by Ansar Al-Shariah in one such attack on the city of Zinjibar during which more than one hundred other conscripts were killed. In a separate development, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has resigned from his post as head of his one-time ruling Congress Party, paving the way for his successor, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to take over when the party holds its annual meeting later this year, party officials said. Abdul Karim Al-Aryani, the party's vice president, will lead the party until then.
