In recent years, the Yemen Islah Party has been subjected to systematic terrorist operations led by several terrorist groups, targeting a large number of its leaders, activists, preachers, social reformers, educators and volunteers in charity. The terrorist attacks that targeted the Islah included several Yemeni governorates, and terrorist groups continue to pursue the leaders and members and activists of the Islah Party without stop, targeting them with improvised explosive devices, ambushes, direct shooting, and other terrorist killing methods.

Through conducting a simple statistic of the most important terrorist operations targeting leaders, activists and members of the Yemeni Islah Party, we will find that the Islah Party is the most prominent victims of terrorism in Yemen and the region without exaggeration. This is because the members and leaders of a government, political organization, civil party, advocacy group, or political trend in the world have never been subjected to systematic terrorist operations involving Shiite and Sunni terrorist groups as happened in Yemen by (Houthi militias, al-Qaeda, and other unknown groups). These terrorist operations included a large geographical area, which continued for a period of time that began more than four years ago and continues.

Systematic terrorism

Perhaps the most basic description of the terrorism that the Yemeni Islah Party is exposed to is that it is systematic terrorism, in which several contradicted terrorist groups are involved in. But these groups are united in their hostility to the Islah. These groups are planning their terrorist operations, setting goals and then implementing these goals easily, taking advantage of the security vacuum in the country due to the coup of the Houthi militias and their ally Ali Saleh on the legitimate authority and the fragility of the security services because of their inherited weakness since the previous regime.

Also, the cooperation between the former regime and the terrorist groups has helped these groups to spread in the country and their presence within the security services themselves, enabling them to strengthen their influence. At the same time, the former regime (Ali Saleh regime) had been able to infiltrate terrorist groups by making pro-him leaders within them to undertake the task of training, financing, supervising, setting targets and selecting executors in the context of manipulating with the file of terrorism and taking it as a card to intimidate his opponents at home and blackmail foreign countries and neighboring countries.

Perhaps the most prominent evidence of the political recruitment of terrorism by the regime of Ali Saleh is that the terrorist groups were deployed in the remote areas of the country in order to leave the space for movement and training as well as to use them as a scarecrow, but after handing over power to his deputy Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as a result of the February 11, 2011, peaceful popular revolution and the formation of the National Reconciliation Government, the terrorist groups moved to the capital Sana'a and carried out several terrorist operations during the transitional period. Through these terrorist operations, Ali Saleh aimed to show that President Abed Rabbo Hadi and the National Reconciliation Government are unable to maintain security and stability, in addition to intimidating the Yemeni people and the international community from the consequences of peaceful popular youth revolution broken out against him.

However, after the coup and the transfer of the legitimate authority to the interim capital of Aden, the activity of the terrorist groups in Sana'a suddenly stopped and moved to the interim capital of Aden, targeting a large number of government leaders and popular resistance leaders who had a major role in liberating the city of Aden. The former governor Jafar Muhammad Saad was one of these most prominent leaders. Later, the activity of the terrorist groups spread to several governorates and began to systematically target the leaders, members and activists of the Yemeni Islah Party mainly, as well as some Salafi preachers and some leaders of the National Army.

- Why is the Islah Party the target?

There are several reasons why terrorist groups target the leaders and members of the Islah Party by killing them in various ways. These reasons can be measured by the quality of the other characters who have been subjected to the crimes of terrorist groups and the search for the common denominators between these figures and the Yemeni Islah Party, who are leaders of the national army, and some Salafi scholars and preachers.

The causes and motives of terrorist groups to target the Yemeni Islah Party and the above-mentioned categories can be summarized in two main reasons:

The first reason is that these groups are targeting the Yemeni Islah Party because of its standing by the legitimate authority and the Arab Alliance in the war on the coup and its great role in restoring the state. Therefore, the terrorist groups deliberately target the Yemeni Islah Party and some of the national army leaders to eliminate all those who work for the state's restoration, because the state is the opposite of the terrorist groups, so these groups fear of establishment of a strong state will limit their influence and then eliminate them completely.

The second reason is that the terrorist groups are infuriated by the moderate thought adopted by the members of the Yemeni Islah Party, because this thought works to limit and block extremist terrorist thought, in addition to that this thought is contributing to the drying up of the sources of terrorism. Therefore, the terrorist groups seek to eliminate the moderate religious thought that besieges them and seek to eliminate the members of the Islah Party and their comrades belonging to the Salafist movement who adopt this thought, especially the influential preachers of the two parties, known for their moderation and people's love for them.

In order to highlight the hideousness of the terrorism that is being inflicted on the Yemeni Islah Party, the website of al-Islah.net will publish a series of episodes in the coming days to monitor the most prominent terrorist attacks targeting a large number of Islahis including leaders, members, activists, and preachers in several Yemeni governorates began before preparing for the coup against the legitimate authority and to date. This reveals that it is not an exaggeration to say that the Yemeni Islah Party is the most prominent victim of terrorism that exceeds the sectarian and states in the region and the world.