Open War: Yemen vs. Yemen vs. Al-Qaeda

As of September 26, 2009 Yemen has declared open war on any and all militant forces of Al-Qaeda within Yemeni borders (Reuters). The Yemeni forces have been increasing their actions against Al-Qaeda while meanwhile trying to stem a northern Shiite insurgency. Since the attempted December 25th air bombing of a U.S. airliner heading for Detroit, claimed to have been headed by Al-Qaeda's own Yemeni factions, Yemen has greatly increased their actions against Al-Qaeda (Reuters). But will their actions be enough? If Al-Qaeda happens to overtake Yemen, they will have a base point from which they can spread their operations. The resources they could acquire are of vast importance. Were Yemen to be taken over, Al-Qaeda would have the chance to take control of the world's top oil exporter (Reuters) and therefore gain major global interest. The control of the world's main oil resource would give Al-Qaeda the power to cut off oil to many countries, such as the United States, and weaken them greatly. Although the control of such a major resource would cause problems in the acquisition of oil for many countries, it wouldn't entirely end their supplies of oil. This conflict seems, for Al-Qaeda, to be a battle for territory and any possible advantages that may come with it. Yemen is simply trying to keep its people and borders safe, but a large problem arises when many of Al-Qaeda's troops are coming from Yemen itself.