On Wednesday, Yemeni forces raided an Al Qaeda hideout and set off a gun battle as the government vowed to eliminate the group that claimed it was behind the Christmas bombing attempt on a US airliner on approach to Detroit. The fighting took place in an Al Qaeda stronghold in western Yemen, haven for a [...]
A month before the accused Christmas bomber tried to blow up a jetliner, counterterrorism officials were told he had possible ties to “Yemen-based extremists.” In the wake of the near-massacre of almost 300 people by the young Nigerian jihadist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the United States’ terror watchdogs have been assailed as incompetent. The failure to [...]
Yemen has called for Western help against the “hundreds” of Al-Qaeda militants in the country amid reports on Wednesday that Washington is working with Sanaa to identify possible military targets. Identifying a shortage of helicopters as a particular problem, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said late on Tuesday, “We need more training, we have to [...]
On Saturday, federal authorities charged a 23-year-old Nigerian man with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, and officials said the suspect told them he had obtained explosive chemicals and a syringe that were sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda. The authorities have not [...]
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia said that it has regained control of a mountainous region from Yemeni rebels who it said entered the kingdom’s borders. Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, the assistant defense minister, told the state-run Saudi Press Agency, “The Saudi region of Jabal Dokhan is back under full and complete Saudi control. Our [...]
State-run media reported that Yemeni forces killed about 150 Shiite rebels Sunday in northwestern Yemen after the rebels tried to take over the presidential palace in Saada, breaching a recent cease-fire. State-run SABA said, “The Houthi fighters attacked the city from different directions with almost 70 armored vehicles, but the attack was repelled by the [...]
Insurgents fired mortars on military locations near the rebel stronghold of Saada, Yemen last Saturday, putting in doubt a cease-fire between the government of Yemen and the Houthi Shiite rebels. Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, said that the government remains committed to a cease-fire, but commanders on the front lines reported [...]
A Yemen Embassy spokesman in the United States said that Yemen’s military opened an investigation Friday into reports that an airstrike intended for Shiite rebels mistakenly struck and killed displaced Yemeni civilians. The spokesman, Mohammed Albasha, said, “We have been exercising strict precautions to minimize collateral civilian casualties and damage.” The strike last Thursday was [...]
