Al-Qaeda Leaders Move Openly in Yemen

[unhappycamper]

Al-Qaeda Leaders Move Openly in Yemen
December 30, 2009
Long War Journal|by Bill Roggio

Even as the U.S. has stepped up cooperation with Yemen in targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known terrorists wanted by the U.S. government continue to operate in the open while the Yemeni government looks the other way.

The U.S. has increased military and intelligence support to the weak Yemeni government and President Ali Abdullah Saleh over the past several months as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has grown more bold. The terror group has been plotting to target the Yemeni state as well as U.S. and other foreign targets inside and outside Yemen, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

In the fall, the U.S. deployed special operations forces to Yemen to work with the country's army and security serves to root out al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The terror group has opened large training camps in Sana'a, Abyan, and Shabwa provinces over the past year. Camps in these provinces were targeted in U.S. airstrikes on Dec. 17, while a high-level leadership meeting was hit a week later in Shabwa on Dec. 24.

The Yemeni government has denied U.S. involvement in the attacks against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and claimed Yemen took action because the group was "trying to show that they can undertake terrorist activities in an open fashion."

"There was intelligence that they were targeting the British Embassy and a number of government institutions as well as private schools," Abu Bakr al Qirbi, Yemen's foreign minister, told The New York Times. "The second reason is that they have become more vocal, trying to show that they can undertake terrorist activities in an open fashion. So the government had to respond to that."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/alqaeda-leaders-move-openly-in-yemen.html?col=1186032310810

[evan2]

1. Do they wear al Qaeda Member name tags?

Do they carry ID that lists their address as Suite 666, al Qaeda HQ, Yemen Division?