(CNN) -- Yemen is embarking on a major initiative in its war on terror and plans to build four new branches for the country's elite counter-terrorism units next year, a spokesman for the country's American embassy said on Saturday.
Mohammed Albasha said the branches will be located in four different locations -- Mareb, Shabwa, Abyan and Hadramawt.
Hadramawt, Albasha said, "will have the largest contingency of counter-terror units. This is the next phase in the war on terrorism - we are bringing the fight to al Qaeda".
Yemen has been locked in a struggle with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the offshoot of the al Qaeda terror network based in Yemen.
It grabbed the attention of the west with the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines trans-Atlantic flight as it landed in Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day in 2009.
Over the past year, U.S. Special Forces have expanded the type of training they're giving to Yemen's military, while also adding more Special Operations forces to the training mission there.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved spending $150 million to train and equip Yemen's security forces, specifically so they can fight al Qaeda. That includes helicopters, planes and other equipment and it more than doubles the amount of aid the U.S. military authorized in 2009.
A senior defense official told CNN last month that the United States and Yemen have shared surveillance and intelligence on AQAP activity inside the country.
Last week, at a forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, said AQAP is "increasingly active" in reaching out to find terrorist recruits, even in the United States.
"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is now the most operationally active node of the al Qaeda network," Brennan said.
According to a statement released by the While House, Brennan called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh Thursday and emphasized "the importance of taking forceful action against the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in order to thwart its plans to carry out terrorist attacks in Yemen as well as in other countries, including in the U.S. Homeland".
Earlier this month, a vehicle carrying U.S. Embassy personnel in Yemen was attacked but nobody was injured.
In October the motorcade of the British deputy ambassador was attacked and in April the British ambassador's car was the target of a failed bomb attack.
While it is not yet known who is responsible for that attack, the Sate Department's most recent travel advisory for Yemen warns Americans of threats to U.S. interests due to active terrorist activity, specifically from AQAP.
Embassy employees in Sanaa are instructed to use caution when visiting restaurants, hotels or tourist areas in the capital and are forbidden from traveling outside the capital. CNN
