terça-feira, 7 de setembro de 2010

U.S. plan to aid Yemen could backfire

SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. military's Central Command has proposed a $1.2 billion, 5-year military aid program to beef up Yemen's poor-performance security forces to counter al-Qaida's growing strength.

But military analysts say that, in a failing state many see as the next Pakistan, such a program will only drive a disgruntled tribal society into al-Qaida's waiting arms.

Yemen has long been a battleground in the war against al-Qaida. The first strike by a missile-armed U.S. drone aircraft to kill a jihadist leader was carried out in Yemen in November 2002.

But the impoverished country at the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula remained something of a backwater in the global struggle until 2 years ago when Saudi Arabian and Yemeni jihadists, among the most dedicated fighters in al-Qaida, joined forced to create al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The killing of 13 Americans, allegedly by a Muslim U.S. Army psychiatrist, at Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 5, 2009, and the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner over Detroit were directed by AQAP.

These days U.S. intelligence officials say that AQAP is the militant group most likely to mount a major attack on the United States in a bid to replicate the carnage of 9/11.

UPI