U.S. police and military trainers, advisers back in Yemen
<
http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/jim-kouri> Jim Kouri
Law Enforcement Examiner
. May 10, 2012
U.S.
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/somali-terrorists-captured-by-police-us-adv
isors-yemen> police and military trainers and advisors have returned to
Yemen and are training that nation's security forces, Defense Department
officials announced on Monday.
President Barack Obama's administration had ordered the training mission in
Yemen to be suspended due to the political turmoil in that nation. The
United States recently began reintroducing a small number of trainers into
the country,
<
http://www.defense.gov/bios/biographydetail.aspx?biographyid=330> Navy
Captain John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said.
Kirby, speaking to reporters during a press briefing, noted that
<
http://www.state.gov/j/inl/civ/c27153.htm> U.S. advisors had been working
for years with the Yemeni government, police agencies, and military forces
to
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/somali-terrorists-captured-by-police-us-adv
isors-yemen> combat increasingly powerful al-Qaeda threat throughout the
Muslim nation.
"That threat doesn't just threaten the Yemeni people but also
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/al-qaeda-dangerously-close-to-turning-yemen
-into-a-new-afghanistan> Americans," Captain Kirby said.
"There was a suspension of some of that activity in Yemen for a while due to
the political instability in that country," the spokesman said. "We are now
beginning to resume more of that routine military-to-military cooperation."
Just this week, the American people were told about how CIA agents thwarted
an attempt by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner
one year after the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to a
<
http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-seizure-of
-ied-overseas> statement released on Monday. What surprised many
counterterrorism experts was the sophistication of the upgrade of the
so-called underwear bomb.
<
http://examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/nation/pentagon-aims-resume-mi
litary-help-yemen.html> Pentagon officials will not discuss operations in
Yemen, Kirby said. "And I'm certainly not going to provide specific details
on the numbers of individuals that we have there," he said.
The Somali group known as
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/king-plans-third-islamic-terrorism-hearing-
will-examine-al-shabaab> al-Shabaab has provided weapons, fighters and
training with explosives over the last few months to the Yemen-based
al-Qaeda branch that has been battling with the Yemeni police and army
forces in Abyan since May 2011, according to officials such as Congressman
Pete King (R-NY).
The country's interior ministry reported earlier this month that
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/somali-terrorists-captured-by-police-us-adv
isors-yemen> al-Shabaab had sent 300 armed men to fight alongside the
Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing known locally as Partisans of Sharia ( Islamic
law) in Abyan province. The group is also known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP).
Al-Qaeda militants, who took advantage of the conflicts in the country, have
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/al-qaeda-terrorists-seize-control-of-city-y
emen> seized several towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces after severe
fighting with government troops backed by U.S. drones, according to the Law
Enforcement Examiner's police adviser source.
In January 2009, al-Qaeda affiliates in Saudi Arabia and Yemen officially
merged and formed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as reported in the
<
http://www.examiner.com/article/al-shabaab-and-al-qaeda-formally-merge-soma
lia-says-report> Examiner.
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Received on Thu May 10 2012 - 08:38:28 EDT
