Yemeni forces raid al-Qaida hideout, clashes erupt

Yemeni forces raided an al-Qaida hideout and set off a gun-battle on 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 alQaida 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 alQaida terrorists and will continue its strikes against the group until it is totally eliminated, Deputy Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Saleh alZawari, told senior military officials at a meeting in Mareb, another province believed to shelter alQaida fighters.
AlQaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Ladens group, claimed it was behind the attempt to bomb a Detroitbound airliner. Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old passenger, was arrested on Friday after he allegedly tried to bring down the Northwest Airlines flight, carrying 289 people.
U.S. investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from alQaida operatives in Yemen. Yemens government has said Abdulmutallab spent two periods in the country, from 2004-2005 and from August to December of this year, just before the attempted attack.
Abdulmutallabs Yemen connection has drawn attention to alQaidas growing presence in the impoverished and lawless country, which is located on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia.
Wednesdays clashes took place in Hudaydah province, an alQaida stronghold along the Red Sea coast. A security official said the target was a house owned by an alQaida sympathizer. The official said the owner was arrested, a suspected alQaida member was injured and several militants who fled were being pursued. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Before Wednesdays clashes, Yemeni forces backed by U.S. intelligence carried out two major strikes against alQaida hideouts this month, reportedly killing more than 60 militants.
The U.S. has increasingly provided intelligence, surveillance and training to Yemeni forces during the past year, and has provided some firepower, according to a senior U.S. defence official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject.
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman, said Yemen received $67 million in training and support under the Pentagons counterterrorism program last year, second only to some $112 million spent in Pakistan.
He said the programme was not a new one.
We are going to work with allies and partners to seek out terrorist activity, alQaida, wherever they operate, plan their operations, seek safe harbour, he said. This is an effort that is years old now.
In Holland, the Dutch government issued a preliminary report on Wednesday calling the airliner plot professional, but describing the execution as amateurish.
Dutch Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst, told a news conference Abdulmutallab apparently assembled the explosive device, including 80 grams of highly explosive PETN, in the aircraft toilet, then planned to detonate it with a syringe of chemicals. She said the explosives appeared to have been professionally prepared and then given to Abdulmutallab.
President Barack Obama has demanded a preliminary report by Thursday on what went wrong in the Detroit case. Mr. Obama said the intelligence community should have been able to piece together information that would have raised red flags and possibly prevented Abdulmutallab from boarding the airliner.
Abdulmutallab had been placed in one broad database, but he never made it onto more restrictive lists, despite his fathers warnings to U.S. Embassy officials in Nigeria last month.
Abdulmutallab attended a twoweek seminar in Houston in August 2008 that was conducted by the AlMaghrib Institute, a Webbased Islamic education centre, said Waleed Basyouni, vice-president of the institute. The institute is cooperating with authorities, he said.
Meanwhile, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that a man tried to board a commercial airliner in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe in a case bearing chilling similarities to the Detroit airliner plot.
The Somali man - whose name has not yet been released - was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai.
The aborted attack in Detroit was launched almost a year after alQaidas operations in Yemen and Saudi Arabia united to form AlQaida in the Arabian Peninsula, making Yemen its base.
Shortly after AlQaida in the Arabian Peninsula was formed, Saudi Arabia announced a list of 85 most wanted militants outside its borders. It said 11 of them were former Guantanamo detainees who had gone through its rehabilitation program. Three were confirmed to have gone to Yemen. They included Abu alHareth Muhammad alOufi, who later surrendered in Yemen and was handed over to Saudis, Said alShihri, the groups No. 2 and Youssef alShihri, who was killed in a clash with Saudis in southern Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni roots of the attack threaten to complicate U.S. efforts to empty the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, where nearly half the remaining detainees are from Yemen.
Finding a home for them is key to Obamas pledge to close the prison, but emerging details of the plot are renewing concerns about Yemens capacity to contain militants and growing alQaida safe havens.
U.S. Congressman Mike Castle, a Republican, noted that of the 90 men remaining at Guantanamo, more than 60 have been identified as dangerous by the Pentagon.
Yet, in the past few weeks, the Obama Administration has overseen the repatriation of six Yemenis from Guantanamo back to their home country, he said. As we learn more about Abdulmutallabs ties to Yemen and AQAP, it is increasingly clear that the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo is a flawed process demanding immediate review.
Abdulmutallab spent about five months in Yemen leading up to the airliner attack and a year before that in 20042005, Yemeni officials said.
Administrators at the Sana Institute for the Arabic Language said he was enrolled at the school during both periods to study Arabic. But staff and students said he spent at most one month at the school starting in late August. His time through December is unaccounted for.
Acquaintances described the strict Islamic life he led, rejecting music, TV and mixing with women. All of them expressed surprise that the quiet man they knew would even consider to carry out such an act.
I saw him once tenderly kiss a baby, said Ahmed Mohammed, a teacher at the institute. Today, hes turned into a monster who would have killed children if the operation had succeeded.