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Yemen: Qaeda’s new base

After being set back by the increased US military presence in Iraq, Islamists are focussing on Yemen as a new territory for their operations, according to experts.

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Mountainous terrain, proximity to Saudi perfect for militants.

PARIS: After being set back by the increased US military presence in Iraq, Islamists are focussing on Yemen as a new territory for their operations, according to experts.

In recent months, Yemen has seen a series of attacks on security services and oil installations claimed by groups linked to Al-Qaeda, with two attacks on US targets in the past six months. On Sept 17, an attack on the US embassy in Sanaa left 18 dead, including an Islamist militant who claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to an editorial published in the daily Arab News, the attack in Sanaa “shows that despite the government’s efforts, militants, including those from Al-Qaeda, are still active in the country and can hit where they want”.

Yemen is attractive to the Islamist militants for a variety of reasons, said Nabil al-Soufi, editor-in-chief of the website NewsYemen. For Al-Qaeda, Yemen provides a “fertile environment” with a lack of state control in “the arid and mountainous regions of the country, where Al Qaeda can establish training camps, without anyone noticing,” he said.

Yemen’s proximity to Saudi Arabia also plays a role, according to Dominique Thomas, an expert in radical Islam. “If Yemen has become important for militants, it’s also due to ... the fierce repression that took place in Saudi Arabia” from where many of the jihadists spilled over, said Thomas.
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