Yemen offers al Qaeda a deal

Times:

The President of Yemen said yesterday that he was willing to strike a deal with al-Qaeda if militants laid down their weapons, amid warnings that dozens of foreign fighters were streaming into the country.

Ali Abdullah Saleh’s offer to negotiate with members of the terror network came as officials said that several al-Qaeda operatives, including Saudis and Egyptians, were travelling from Afghanistan to join fighters in the lawless tribal lands in central and southern Yemen.

Among those said to be in hiding in the area is Anwar al-Awlaki, the influential Yemeni preacher. The US-born imam preached to two of the 9/11 bombers in California and had links to the US army psychiatrist charged with the Fort Hood shootings and the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a Christmas Day flight to Detroit.

Ali Hasan al-Ahmadi, the governor of the southern Shabwa province, said: “There are dozens of Saudi and Egyptian al-Qaeda militants who came. This is in addition to Yemenis who came from Maarib and Abyan [provinces] and a number of militants from Shabwa itself.”

Some Yemeni officials believe that Mr al-Awlaki, a member of a powerful clan who claims not to be a direct member of al-Qaeda, may be willing to enter talks after he leapt from relative obscurity to international infamy as the “bin Laden of the internet”.

...

There is more,

It is really handy that al Qaeda will concentrate its diverse forces in one location. It should take fewer bombs to destroy them this way.

The Telegraph also reports on al Qaeda's surge for forces into Yemen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare