Suspected al-Qaeda members sit behind bars at the state security court in Sanaa. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Yemen cautious on battle against al-Qaeda - 23 January 2002
FBI Director Robert Mueller was in Yemen on Monday as part of a Middle East tour designed to bolster Arab support and capability in the war against al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
The United States has begun to look beyond Afghanistan in the fight against al-Qaeda and much of the attention is being focused on countries like Yemen - a poor, mountainous nation on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula where militants have been able to hide.
The Yemeni Government says it has arrested two al-Qaeda militants named by the US, but that another three men on Washington's wanted list remain at large.
It has not been easy for Yemen to make arrests because the suspects enjoy the protection of powerful tribes who are armed and rarely take much notice of government orders.
Yemeni al-Qaeda terrorist on wanted list: report - November 25 2002
A senior al-Qaeda operative from Yemen is one of three "critical" suspects being hunted by authorities over the Bali bombing, Time magazine reported today.
In their latest edition, Time identified the Yemeni as Syafullah, whose activities included the 1996 bombing of a US military barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 servicemen.
Time said one of the other two "top tier" suspects was an Indonesian militant named Syawal, who was an instructor at an al-Qaeda-linked training camp near Poso on the island of Sulawesi.
The other man police are hunting is a Malaysian, Zubair, who reportedly fought in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and is suspected of leading the surveillance and mapping team for the October 12 Bali attack.
If proved, Syafullah could be the first member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation, which carried out last year's September 11 attacks on the United States, to be directly linked to the Bali bombings.
Al-Qaeda ties sought in Yemen killings - January 1 2003
Yemeni interrogators suspect the man accused of killing three American missionaries at a Baptist hospital may have ties to al-Qaeda, officials said Tuesday, and U.S. investigators joined the search for those behind the murders.
Two of the slain Americans were buried Tuesday in the southern Yemeni town of Jibla, where each had worked for more than two decades and where the attack took place. The third was to be flown to the United States.
CFR - Terrorism Havens: Yemen December 2005
Is Yemen a haven for terrorism?
Yes. Yemen, located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a poor Muslim country with a weak central government, armed tribal groups in outlying areas, and porous borders, which makes it fertile ground for terrorists. Its government has tried to help the United States after September 11, and the State Department calls Yemen “an important partner in the campaign against terrorism, providing assistance in the military, diplomatic, and financial arenas.” But experts say that terrorists live in Yemen, sometimes with government approval; Yemen-based corporations are thought to help fund Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network; and Yemenis affiliated with al-Qaeda have targeted U.S. interests in Yemen, including the October 2000 bombing of the navy destroyer U.S.S. Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden .
Since the bombing of the Cole, has al-Qaeda planned other attacks against targets in Yemen?
Yes. In June 2001, local authorities in Yemen arrested eight Yemeni veterans of the 1979-89 Afghan war against the Soviets in connection with a plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen ’s capital. In July 2002, an accidental explosion that killed two al-Qaeda operatives led to the seizure of 650 pounds of plastic explosives from a Sanaa warehouse. A Kuwaiti citizen suspected of ties to al-Qaeda was arrested in Kuwait and admitted to plotting the October 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off the Yemeni coast. Three American missionaries were killed in December 2002 in a southern Yemeni village, but it is unclear if the alleged killer, a local Islamist militant, had any links to al-Qaeda.
How big an al-Qaeda presence is there in Yemen?
It’s impossible to say precisely, but dozens of al-Qaeda operatives, including senior officials, may be at large in Yeme , experts say. Yemen was second only to Saudi Arabia in being the source of soldiers for the international Islamist brigade that fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan and that gave birth to al-Qaeda. Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of Yemenis fought in Afghanistan or trained in al-Qaeda’s camps there. Yemeni officials say that not every Yemeni veteran of the war in Afghanistan is an al-Qaeda member; nevertheless, Yemeni prisoners make up one of the largest national contingents of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba .
Al-Qaeda and Yemen - December 31, 2009
Al-Qaeda has used Yemen as a base to launch attacks against U.S. interests since the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Some major events:
Oct. 12, 2000
USS Cole attack
Al-Qaeda militants ram the USS Cole with an explosives-packed speedboat off the southern city of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors.
Nov. 3, 2002
Al-Qaeda figure killed
Abu Ali al-Harithi, reputed head of the group al-Qaeda in Yemen, is killed in eastern Yemen by a missile fired at his car by a Predator drone. Harithi was a suspect in the attack on the USS Cole.
Early 2006
Jailbreak in Sanaa
Twenty-three people, at least 13 of them convicted al-Qaeda fighters, escape from a prison in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, through a 140-yard-long tunnel. Jamal Badawi, who had been convicted of plotting, preparing and helping to carry out the Cole bombing, was among the fugitives. U.S. and Yemeni officials said the prisoners were aided by Yemeni intelligence officials sympathetic to al-Qaeda.
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