The sixth issue of Al-Qaeda Yemen's e-magazine Sada Al-Malahim, posted November 2008, was devoted to the organization's September 17, 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, in which 19 people were killed and 16 were wounded, most of them locals. The contents of the magazine indicate that Al-Qaeda is trying to lay down a religious and ideological foundation for justifying attacks on foreign embassies, in order to encourage Muslims to carry out such operations. The intense ideological effort focused on this topic suggests that the organization means to continue targeting embassies, and feels the need to justify the death of Muslims in these attacks. The articles address a variety of religious questions, including the status of the foreign embassies from the perspective of the Shari'a, the issue of harming Muslims who work at the embassies, the guarantee of security (aman) granted to non-Muslims who are permitted to live in Muslim countries, and the status of the local security personnel who guard the embassies. ...
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