destruction of tombs in Yemen by Ansar al-Sharia

In the last post on the destruction of a supposedly “polytheistic” shrine in Hadhramaut, Yemen, by Ansar al-Sharia (which I was sent by @oivej), I noted a video of the ‘targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed’. I’ve updated the last post with another two images of that act of destruction. Here, I’ve clipped some frames from the video of the “targeting” and “clearing” of Houthi rebel sites in Yemen [استهداف وتطهير مواقع يتمركز فيها الحوثيين ولاية تع].

Christopher Jones highlighted these pieces of propaganda as demonstrations of how ‘[t]he global insurgency adapts‘, as ‘[o]ther militant groups [are] copying ISIS tactics’, while Llewelyn Morgan noted that ‘ISIS, in turn, was building on al-Qa’ida [and] the Taliban‘.

Indeed, the difference in audience reach and media quality is a natural one, insofar as it follows technological capacity and audience expectations. Just as fictional horror fans may get nostalgic about old VHS tapes but demand ever more convincing CGI, so these real horror fetishists may be able to appreciate early Taliban propaganda but prefer to consume ever more explicit and ever higher-definition media, in order to sate the craving for a substitute for what is missing in their lives.

The video, which is dated to the 4th of January 2015, but which was (re)posted(?) on the 7th of January 2016, featured first the wrecking of a tomb by hand (with a hammer), then the ruination of mausoleums by more industrial means, whether they were bombs or bulldozers (from 00h07m36s).

The video does not show what happened to the buildings around 00h08m34s or how the mausoleums around 00h08m44s were destroyed. (The frames are from different angles. They may show different buildings within the same space, but the remaining mausoleum is not in the earlier frame and the background buildings are different (as well as in a different relationship with the remaining mausoleum.)

[استهداف وتطهير مواقع يتمركز فيها الحوثيين ولاية تع]

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m00s)

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m06s)

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m13s)

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m18s)

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m27s)

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m34s)

targeting and clearing of sites where Houthi rebels were stationed
(c) Ansar al-Sharia, 4th January 2015 (00h08m44s)

Tags: Ansar al-Sharia, Hadhramaut, Yemen