At first glance, the neat handwriting in blue ink could be from a school notebook.
Prize apart the pages, stuck together by sand and water, and it becomes clear the book belonged to a militant from al-Qaida. Discarded in shrubbery in the mountains of southern Yemen, it covers everything from the principles of a raid — "Surprise, firepower, a sacrificial spirit, quick performance" — to the ultimate goal: "Establishing an Islamic state that rules by Islamic Shariah law."
The notebook, with the name Abu al-Dahdah al-Taazi in red calligraphy on the first page, is one relic of what a local Yemeni governor called a leadership camp for the faction al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).