The attempt on Christmas Day to blow up a Delta Airlines plane as it approached Detroit has focused the eyes of the world on Yemen as a breeding ground for al-Qaeda terrorists.

US spy agencies see al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the network’s most active affiliate outside Pakistan and Afghanistan. The group, which claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing of the flight from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board, is believed to have global ambitions.

Appeal for help
Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qiribi has appealed for more help from the United States and Europe in counter terrorist training, and supplies of military equipment, including helicopters. He claims that there are as many as 300 al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

Earlier this year Saudi and Yemeni elements of the terrorist group merged into a single organisation based in Yemen. Since then the United States has been expanding its assistance to the Yemeni government to launch deadly raids against militant hideouts.The suspect behind the Delta Airlines’ bomb, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, lived and trained in Yemen from August to December

Al-Qaeda’s alternative base
As al-Qaeda has come under sustained attack from US and coalition forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan, civil war and lawlessness has turned Yemen into an ideal alternative base.

A contributor to Yemen’s English language Observer newspaper, Zaid al Alayaa, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that although Yemen armed forces have mounted some effective raids on al-Qaeda bases it needed further help from the West.  However, he does not believe that Yemen is currently the same hotbed for terrorism as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“The ability of Yemen fighting such a terror threat is not up to the international standards based on intelligence and equipment…Yemen cannot alone, by itself, fight or completely eliminate or get rid of such a system.”

Lack of support
Zaid al Alayaa says that although the United States is perceived by many in Yemen as an enemy of Muslims, the people of Yemen do not support al-Qaeda. He says the militants’ activities in the country have affected around 70,000 families and the kidnapping of tourists has severely dented revenues from Yemen’s previously thriving tourism industry.

“You could say that all people at large are condemning or denouncing any act that is done by al-Qaeda. I would say completely that the whole country is against these militants.”

The attempted attack on Delta Northwest flight 253 has been a wake-up call to what is going on in Yemen. But whether the fight against al-Qaeda can sustain a battle on three fronts is a dilemma that the US and its allies’ military strategists must now consider.