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.

yemen vs. al qaeda

According to cfr.com (council on foreign relations), the conflitct between yemen and al-qaeda began in the year 2000 after al-qaeda had bombed U.S.S Cole a navy destroyer. Since then there has been a war to fight terrorism. "Beginning in late 2009, President Obama deployed several dozen troops from the U.S. military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command for intelligence and support to Yemen (Reuters). Since December 2009, the partnered efforts have resulted in more than two dozen ground and airstrikes (al-Jazeera). Raids in December alone allegedly killed fifty-eight AQAP militants."

Yemen sends message to al-Qaeda - 09 Jan 2010

According to Time.com article "Yemen:Al-Qaeda's News Staging Ground?" posted on December 28,2009 Yemen is the poorest country in the middle east. The country has a population of 23.8 million people and is located south of Saudi Arabia.According to globalsecurity.org al-Qaeda is a global terrorist organization run by Osama bin ladan that began in 1988. The conflict between the country of Yemen and the al-Qaeda is a relatively new conflict. Within the last two years the al-Qaeda have resurfaced and regrouped in Yemen. The US director of intelligence said that Yemen was "re-emerging as a jihuadist battleground and potential regional base of operations for al-Qaeda".The United States is concerned about the al-Qaeda being in Yemen because of its geographical location. The al-Qaeda could launch an attack on the Red Sea gateway to the Suez canal Saudi Arabia or the Persian Gulf.