Al-Qaida in Yemen expands operations
Pastor Dale Morgan
Al-Qaida in Yemen expands operations*
By SARAH EL DEEB
The Associated Press
Monday, December 28, 2009; 5:56 PM
CAIRO -- Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility
for the attempted attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit, is led by
a Yemeni who was once a close aide to Osama bin Laden.
The group formed in January this year, when leader Naser Abdel Karim
al-Wahishi announced a merger between operatives from Saudi Arabia and
Yemen.
Al-Wahishi, who goes by the alias Abu Basir, was among 23 al-Qaida
figures who escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006. He is on Saudi
Arabia's most wanted list, which includes many militants currently in Yemen.
The group has been blamed for a series of attacks in Yemen, including an
assault against the U.S. embassy in San'a, and suicide bombings
targeting South Korean visitors.
Recently, the group indicated it was ready to take its fight beyond
Yemen. The government there said the Nigerian accused in the Christmas
day attack on the U.S. airliner visited Yemen this year.
In claiming responsibility for that attack, al-Qaida urged supporters to
get the "infidels" out of the Arabian peninsula. The call echoed Osama
bin Laden, who criticized Saudi Arabia for hosting American military bases.
The group's first operation outside Yemen was carried out in Saudi
Arabia this August against the kingdom's counterterrorism chief, though
that bomb attack failed.
Experts believe the al-Qaida fighters number in the low hundreds. The
group appears to be well funded and has found sanctuaries among a number
of Yemeni tribes, particularly in three eastern provinces.
Yemen, the ancestral home of bin Laden's family, has been an al-Qaida
haven partly because of a weak central government and rugged terrain
where it is easy to hide.
The country was the scene of the 2000 suicide bombing of the destroyer
USS Cole off the Aden Coast that killed 17 American sailors.
Just before the failed Christmas attack, Yemeni airplanes, backed by
U.S. and Saudi intelligence, carried out two air strikes against
al-Qaida operatives in eastern Yemen.