[A-List] US imperialism: Yemen

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

US to send special forces into Yemen to hunt down al Qaeda 

IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 13 March 2002

      THE White House will this week order its
      special forces to begin hunting suspected al
      Qaeda fugitives in Yemen, long believed to be a
      haven for the network's agents.

      Washington will sign a deployment order for 200
      troops, a commitment which will mark the first
      use of US forces in direct action against Osama
      bin Laden's al Qaeda network outside
      Afghanistan.

      American commandos are already training the
      Philippines army in counter-terrorist techniques
      to help eliminate the Abu Sayef Islamic group on
      Basilan Island, but are forbidden from taking
      part in combat.

      Other teams are to be sent to Georgia with the
      strictly limited mission of training local forces to
      operate against Chechen guerrillas using the
      state's Pankisi Gorge as a base for mounting
      attacks on Russian troops in Chechnya.

      Pentagon sources say Yemen is a landmark
      departure from that training role. Local
      government troops are ill-equipped to mount the
      kind of covert raids thought necessary to
      eliminate al Qaeda cells which have found
      sanctuary among the fiercely independent
      mountain clans of the area. An attempt by
      Yemeni troops to capture two terrorist suspects
      two months ago resulted in a major firefight in
      which dozens of soldiers and tribesmen died.

      The US has since conducted surveillance flights
      from British bases in neighbouring Oman using
      Predator drones and manned aircraft.

      There are also strong indications that small
      teams of US Delta Force commandos and
      perhaps British SAS troops have also carried
      out covert close reconnaissance missions in the
      lawless interior of the country.

      Yemen is bin Laden's ancestral family home,
      although most of the clan now lives in Saudi
      Arabia. Terrorists with connections to his al
      Qaeda network killed 17 US sailors and
      wounded 39 others in a suicide attack on the
      USS Cole in Aden harbour, Yemen's main port,
      in October, 2000.

      The Foreign Office, meanwhile, confirmed last
      night that a British man has been shot outside
      his home in the Yemen on Sunday by two
      attackers on a motorcycle. The businessman,
      who has not been named, was in a stable
      condition in a local hospital. His injuries were
      not believed to be life threatening.

      In eastern Afghanistan, US and Afghan troops
      overran Taliban and al Qaeda rebels around
      Shahi Kot, sending them fleeing towards the
      Pakistan border and effectively ending the
      biggest battle of the Afghan war, an Afghan
      general said.

      On the 11th day of the battle 95 miles south of
      Kabul, General Abdullah Joyenda said US and
      Afghan forces now controlled the entire Shahi
      Kot area.

      Other fighters back from the area said Afghan
      forces, backed by US bombing, broke through
      rebel trenches to advance on the mountain
      caves where the remaining rebels were holding
      out. They used tanks to blast the caves at close
      range.

Full article at:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/13-3-19102-0-28-52.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx