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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Oct 17 2010 - 05:26:34 EDT
US terror war in Yemen frustrated by politics
By HAMZA HENDAWI
The Associated Press
Sunday, October 17, 2010; 12:02 AM
SAN'A, Yemen -- For nearly a year, the United States has waged a war against
al-Qaida in Yemen, largely in deep secrecy. But the militants appear
unfazed, and the fragile government of this poor Arab nation is pushing back
against American pressure to escalate the fight.
The regime of Yemen's longtime leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, is
weak, dependent for its survival on the loyalty of unruly tribes and
alliances with Muslim extremists. Yemeni authorities also fear too harsh a
fight against al-Qaida will alienate a deeply conservative Muslim population
where anti-American sentiment is widespread. As a result, the main Yemeni
tactic is often to negotiate with tribes to try to persuade them to hand
over fugitive militants.
Yemeni officials say Washington is pressing them to be more aggressive.
"The Americans are pushing hard and the government is resisting hard," said
Yasser al-Awadi, a senior lawmaker close to Saleh, Yemen's leader of 32
years.
Al-Qaida militants have been building up their presence for several years in
Yemen, finding refuge with tribes in the remote mountain ranges where San'a
has little control. But they made a stunning show of their international
reach in December, when they allegedly plotted a failed Christmas Day
attempt to blow up a passenger jet over the U.S. The Obama administration
branded Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula a global threat, and has
dramatically stepped up its alliance with Saleh's regime to uproot it.
Around 50 elite U.S. military experts are in the country training Yemeni
counterterrorism forces - a number that has doubled over the past year.
Washington is funneling some $150 million in military assistance to Yemen
this year for helicopters, planes and other equipment, along with a similar
amount for humanitarian and development aid. San'a says its troops are
fanned out around the country, hunting for militants.
Still, there's been little visible progress.
In recent weeks, al-Qaida gunmen have been bold enough to carry out assaults
in the capital, San'a, including a failed ambush on a top British diplomat
in her car. The government touted as a major success a fierce weeklong siege
in September by Yemeni troops against an al-Qaida force in the provincial
town of Houta, but most of the militants escaped into nearby, impenetrable
mountains.
Days after that siege, the governor of the same province, Shabwa, narrowly
escaped gunmen who ambushed his convoy. In nearby Abyan province, an
al-Qaida campaign of assassinations that has killed dozens of police and
army officers prompted authorities last month to ban motorcycles in urban
areas to try to stop cycle-mounted gunmen.
Meanwhile, al-Qaida in Yemen's top leadership remains intact, issuing a Web
video last week threatening to cross into neighboring
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/saudiarabia.html?nav=e
l> Saudi Arabia to assassinate senior security officials. "Look under your
beds before you sleep, you might find one of our bombs," the video warned
Saudis, whose government is viewed by al-Qaida as not Islamic, corrupt and
too close to America.
And the hunt for Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born radical Islamic cleric who
Washington says has become a leader in the group, may have gone cold. The
governor of Shabwa province, where al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding in the
mountains, told The Associated Press he hasn't been sighted in two months
and cast doubt whether the cleric was still in the province.
American officials have been careful not to show any sign of friction. "We
believe that abilities of the Yemeni security system are constantly
increasing," the State Department's No. 3 diplomat, William Burns, told
reporters after meeting Saleh last week.
Still, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi recently brought one
dispute out into the open, saying San'a had put a stop to American warplanes
or drones carrying out strikes against al-Qaida targets, a tactic that
Washington has relied on against al-Qaida and the Taliban in
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/pakistan.html?nav=el>
Pakistan.
In December, three airstrikes were carried out against purported al-Qaida
targets in two provinces and outside San'a. At least six al-Qaida militants
are thought to have been killed in those strikes, along with more than 40
civilians. In a Sept. 30 interview with the Arab daily Al-Hayat, al-Qirbi
acknowledged the assaults were carried out by U.S. aircraft.
"American strikes have ceased since December because the Yemeni government
insisted that these strikes don't yield any results," he said.
American officials have refused to confirm that U.S. planes carried out the
strikes. U.S. officials contacted the past week for further comment also
declined to speak.
Yemen at first said its warplanes carried out the strikes to avoid an angry
public backlash, according to Yemeni officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject.
Visible signs of the American counterterror campaign here are few. Deep in
the country of 23 million people, villagers report the round-the-clock sound
of drones, presumed to be American craft watching militants. Dozens of
informers have been recruited in recent months to keep U.S. counterterrorism
officials posted on the militants' movements and chatter, Yemeni security
officials say. They also say the Yemenis submit to their U.S. counterparts
daily progress reports on efforts to track down al-Awlaki.
With U.S. airstrikes off the table - and American officials saying there is
no intention for U.S. troops to fight on the ground - it is up to Yemen's
police and military to wage the battle. But their ability to operate is
deeply hampered.
Al-Qaida fighters - estimated to number around 300 - have built up
strongholds in the provinces of Shabwa, Abyan, Jouf and Marib, regions of
daunting mountain ranges where central authority has nearly no presence. At
least 70 percent of Shabwa, for example, is a no-go area for security
forces, leaving most under the control of armed tribesmen who offer
protection to al-Qaida militants, Yemeni security officials say.
Yemen and Washington also disagree on how much of a real threat al-Qaida
presents. Yemeni lawmakers and tribal chiefs often maintain that the danger
is a myth propagated by Washington to impose its control over the country -
or by the San'a government to give it an excuse to strike its domestic
enemies.
The United States sees al-Awlaki as the most notorious English-speaking
advocate of terrorism directed at America, with a dangerously strong appeal
to Muslims in the West, and Washington has put him on a list of militants to
kill or capture. U.S. investigators say e-mails link him to the Army
psychiatrist accused of last year's killings at Fort Hood, Texas, and that
he helped prepare Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused in the
Christmas airline bombing attempt.
But in Yemen - al-Awlaki's ancestral land - only a few people have heard of
him. Those who have say they cannot understand what the fuss is all about.
And if he is captured, he will not be extradited to the United States
because Yemen's constitution forbids it, Foreign Minister al-Qirbi has said.
"I believe his role and importance are grossly exaggerated," Shabwa's
governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told AP. "I don't think that what the
Americans are saying about him is totally baseless, but I am confident that
it is exaggerated."
More broadly, the government is also reluctant to wage an all-out fight
because of Saleh's alliances with militant Islamic groups, including jihadi
veterans of the wars in
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/afghanistan.html?nav=e
l> Afghanistan, the Balkans, Chechnya and
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/iraq.html?nav=el>
Iraq. He has let their influence grow as part of an elaborate
divide-and-rule game that has helped him stay in power.
In a sign of his accommodation with them, Saleh in late September named
powerful Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani - considered by Washington "a
specially designated global terrorist" - as the "religious overseer" of the
ruling party's ongoing negotiations with opposition parties over electoral
reform.
Al-Zindani, who is thought by the United States to be a one-time spiritual
mentor of Osama bin Laden, has warned that the U.S.-backed fight against
al-Qaida could lead to "foreign occupation" of Yemen.
"The regime has from the start depended on a tripod of military, religious
and tribal bases," said prominent analyst Abdel-Ghani al-Iryani. "It
continues to think to this day that it's in control of the situation, but I
personally think they no longer can."
Associated Press Writer Ahmed al-Haj contributed to this report.
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