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ANTITERROR ALLIES: U.S. and Yemen Test the Limits

The small Gulf state exemplifies the new front line in terror war, as forces team up to hunt for Al Qaeda

Faye Bowers & Philip Smucker
The Christian Science Monitor
November 29, 2002, Edition

"Yemen has to contend with US pressure to eliminate the considerable Al Qaeda presence in its territory," says Bernard Haykel, a Yemen expert at New York University. "But it also has to deal with a population that is broadly sympathetic to Osama bin Laden's political aims."

WASHINGTON & SANA, Yemen -- CSM
Vigilant Yemeni snipers in light-green camouflage and polished black army boots carrying machineguns block the gates to the US Embassy.

The massive concrete and iron diplomatic compound is officially closed for a US government "security review." But inside, there's a bustle of activity. Members of a US Marine contingent lift weights and jump rope to stay fit; others oil and shine their M-16s. Green Berets and CIA operatives plot their next move.

Today this bunkered embassy is just one frontier outpost in a new phase of America's "war on terror."

From Afghanistan to former Soviet Georgia and the Philippines, US forces are training local armies to take on Islamic insurgencies. But recent successes -- and failures -- here in Yemen exemplify the challenges of collaborating in key terrorist hot spots around the world.

The fallout in Yemen following the Nov. 3 Hellfire missile strike, in which six Al Qaeda members were killed in a missile launched from a CIA-operated unmanned drone, is a case in point. The Yemeni government and US targets there have faced subsequent reprisal attacks.

The US contingent is trying to train backward local "special forces" to perform difficult "hit and snatch" operations against suspected Al Qaeda cells operating in the desert areas. On top of the military challenges are domestic and international political obstacles.

In this case, the local forces are led by the president's inexperienced son, and botched one attempt to capture the key Al Qaeda leader -- Qaed Senyan al-Harithi -- who was later killed in the US strike.

* Fallout for terror-war allies
* Failed Yemeni special-ops mission
(More: CSMonitor.com News Source)
2002 © The Christian Science Monitor.

Dan