‘Yemen doesn’t need US troops’

SANAA: Yemen’s foreign minister said Wednesday that his country opposes any direct intervention by US or other foreign troops in the fight against Al-Qaeda. Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi told The Associated Press in an interview that “there is a lot of sensitivity about foreign troops coming to Yemeni territory.” The United States has ramped up its counterterrorism aid to Yemen in an intensified campaign to uproot Al-Qaeda’s offshoot here, which Washington warns has become a “global” threat. US military personnel have already been on the ground training Yemeni security forces in the fight, and intelligence cooperation has increased. Al-Qirbi said Yemen’s government would welcome more military trainers, “but not in any other capacity.” “There is a lot of debate among them about how far they should get involved in Yemen,” Al-Qirbi said, referring to the United States and its allies. “I’m sure that their experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be very useful to learn from — that direct intervention complicates things.” So far the US has indicated it is not aiming to deploy ground forces in Yemen. President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said earlier in the week, “We’re not talking about that at this point at all.” But Al-Qirbi’s comments underscored how Washington must tread carefully as it strengthens its partnership with Yemen’s government. Earlier this week, Al-Qirbi insisted there is no agreement between Yemen and the United States allowing the American military to use cruise missiles, drones or warplanes in strikes on Yemeni territory. “And there is no proposal for such an agreement,” he added. The issue is highly sensitive for the Yemenis. In 2002, the government was infuriated when US officials made public that US cruise missiles were used in a strike that killed a top Al-Qaeda figure, Abu Ali Al-Harithi — believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen. In another development, Yemeni security forces on Wednesday captured a key Al-Qaeda leader and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa which prompted embassies to bolt their doors, police said. The arrest of Mohammed Al-Hanq and the two other suspected extremists at a hospital in Raydah, north of capital, came as Yemen’s authorities said Al-Qaeda militants were being choked countrywide and forced into “holes.” Al-Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometers north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded. A security official told AFP security forces had Wednesday morning swooped on a hospital in Raydah, 80 km north of Sanaa in Amran province, where the suspects were receiving treatment. “Mohammed Al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran,” the official said. Four men who had transported the wounded to the hospital and hid them from police were also taken into custody, the Defense Ministry-linked news website 26Sep.net said. Two other Al-Qaeda suspects meanwhile turned themselves in to the authorities in the region of Marib, east of Sanaa, on Wednesday, and a third surrendered in Arhab, a security official said. Arab News