Yemen is focus of new US front against al Qaeda Source: Times Online The United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against the Al-Qaeda terror network in Yemen, accoding to The New York Times newspaper.
A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent a number of its top field operatives with counter-terrorism experience to the country, the newspaper said.
At the same time, some of the most secretive special operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counter-terrorism tactics, the report said.
The Pentagon is to spend more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and use teams of Special Forces to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces.
Yemen became the focus of US attention after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a known Nigerian extremist who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day, confessed to training with an Al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen, security officials told the US media.
The country has become a refuge for jihadists, in part because Yemen's government welcomed returning Islamist fighters who had fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s, but al Qaeda militants have made much more focused efforts to build a base in the country recently, drawing recruits from throughout the region and mounting attacks more frequently on foreign embassies and other targets.
Fears are also growing of a resurgent Islamist extremism in nearby Somalia and East Africa. Administration officials and American lawmakers said Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub, rivaling the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan where the organization’s top leaders operate.
“Yemen now becomes one of the centers of that fight,” said Senator Joseph Lieberman, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who visited the country in August. “We have a growing presence there, and we have to, of Special Operations, Green Berets, intelligence,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The White House is now seeking to nurture enduring ties with the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and prod him to combat the local Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
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