12/30/09

from Newsmax

Yemeni Forces Raid Al-Qaida Hideout, Clashes Erupt

Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009 07:09 PM


Yemeni forces raided an al-Qaida hideout and set off a gunbattle Wednesday as the government vowed to eliminate the group that claimed it was behind the Christmas bombing attempt on a U.S. airliner.

The fighting took place in an al-Qaida stronghold in western Yemen, haven for a group that attacked the U.S. Embassy here in 2008, killing 10 Yemeni guards and four civilians. A government statement said at least one suspected militant was arrested during the clashes.

"The (Interior) Ministry will continue tracking down al-Qaida terrorists and will continue its strikes against the group until it is totally eliminated," Deputy Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Saleh al-Zawari told senior military officials at a meeting in Mareb, another province believed to shelter al-Qaida fighters.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden's group, claimed it was behind the attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner. Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old passenger, was arrested Friday after he allegedly tried to bring down the Northwest Airlines flight, carrying 289 people.

Read the whole story at Newsmax.

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This is good to see. Yemen has been cooperating with U.S. Intelligence and accepting military aid money for a while to help stomp out Al-Quaeda activity in their country. It looks like we are actually getting the cooperation we're paying for. Now if we can get the obuma government to quit releasing the Guantanamo prisoners and letting them go back to train A-Q volunteers in Yemen, we might make some progress. (Two of the BVD-bombers trainers were recent alumni of Gitmo.)