"Tariq al-Fadli"

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Tariq bin Nasir bin Abdullah al-Fadli (Zinjibar, 1966) is a Yemeni politician, mujahid and jihadist, one of the leaders, an ally of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Arab nationalist, South Yemeni separatist. He is an active anti-communist, a participant in the Afghan war on the Mujahideen side. In Yemeni civil conflicts, he defends the regional and ethno-tribal interests of Fadli. The head of the self-proclaimed Emirate of Abyan. Unlike most Islamist leaders, they favor an alliance between Islam and the West.

Heir to Sultan Fadli
He was born into the ruling family of the Fadli Sultanate. A year after the birth of Tariq al-Fadli, the sultanate ceased to exist. After the proclamation of independence of South Yemen under the rule of the Marxist party of the NLF, the YSP family of al-Fadli subsequently moved to Lebanon, then to Saudi Arabia. He graduated from the military school in al-Taif.

Since childhood, Tariq al-Fadli was brought up in the spirit of Arab and Islamic traditions. It is a radical version of Islam, both religiously and politically. This was facilitated, in particular, by his trip to Cyprus, where he felt a strong aversion to the violation of Muslim customs.

Mujahideen of the Afghan War
At the age of nineteen, Tariq al-Fadli, as part of a group of Saudi volunteers, went to Afghanistan to fight on the side of the mujahideen against the USSR and the PDPA Communist Party. Al-Fadli understood the Afghan war as Islamic Jihad. He joined the formations of the Islamic Party of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. One of Tariq al-Fadli’s commanders was Osama bin Laden. Al-Fadli participated in many battles, was wounded in a mine explosion. During the Afghan war, neither he nor bin Laden practiced terror against civilians.

During the Afghan war, Tariq al-Fadli became irreconcilable anti-communism. He also mastered the principles of mujahideenism, which allow for tactical alliances with the West and the use of secular democratic slogans in politics.

Anti-communist jihadist
In 1990, Tariq al-Fadli returned to his homeland in South Yemen. Continuing his anti-communist struggle, he organized an armed detachment for guerrilla warfare with the ruling YSP. This group was called Islamic Jihad.

In the same year, the unification of the NDRY with the YAR on the basis of “pan-Arab values” led to the separation of power between the President of the YAR Ali Abdullah Saleh and the head of the NDRY, ex-Secretary General of the YSP Ali Salem al-Beid. Tariq al-Fadli saw this not as a national unity of Yemenis, but as a conspiracy of anti-people elites in the North and South. He continued his insurgent and terrorist struggle against the authorities. The war was fought "on two fronts" - against the former JSP and against the official authorities with their Western allies. The partner and sponsor was Bin Laden. In particular, al-Fadli was accused of bombing the Aden Mohur Hotel, which was used as a military installation by US troops in Somalia.

In 1994, after an assassination attempt on a JSP functionary, Tariq al-Fadli was arrested at al-Beid's request.

Politics