As Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the US State Department confirmed on Saturday that Washington had decided to reopen all diplomatic missions in the Middle East, except Yemen, the race against al-Qaeda is on in the impoverished nation.
“Our embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, will remain closed because of ongoing concerns about a threat stream indicating the potential for terrorist attacks emanating from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” Psaki told reporters on Saturday.
Keen to play down the terror threat, US President Barack Obama however warned that while al-Qaeda as a group had been weakened globally, certain regional branches such as that of Yemen, remained a source of concern, hence Washington's determination to volunteer its counter-terror technology.
“We still have these regional organizations like AQAP that can pose a threat,” President Obama said Friday at a press conference.
Back in Yemen the government is said to be concerned with al-Qaeda's abilities to recruit "tech-savvy and well-educated Saudis." Recent intelligence reports have revealed that despite tighter border controls, Saudi nationals are still managing to cross over onto to Yemen and swell the ranks of the terror group.
Beyond a partnership with terror elements in Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda Yemen recruited as well Pakistani nationals, intelligence officials told AFP on Saturday. Ragi Bin Ali a well-known Pakistani bomb maker was found dead in a recent drone strike in Yemen, proof that the group has learned to utilize its regional network to advance its agenda in the impoverished nation.
As terror militants continue to enjoy some tribal support in fragmented Yemen, the stakes are ever getting higher as the government and its allies against terror are increasingly relying on drones to drive out militants, driving a wedge with the wider public.
Fadl Abdullah, head of the Yemeni Organization for Human Rights, told the Associated Press on the matter, "the public thinks that the United States is randomly bombing moving vehicles based on information from informants or intercepted phone conversations. We strongly condemn the drones. There are strong chances that civilians get killed in the middle of the strike, either because they are present at the site of the attack or simply because of wrong information provided by the informants.”
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