Americans are continuing to be killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and members of Congress are debating whether the U.S. should continue bombing in Libya. But in the meantime, pretty much out of the glare of the media, U.S. forces have been fighting in a theater of war where anti-American terrorists have really been operating…the nation of Yemen, south of Saudi Arabia.

 

With Yemen’s longtime dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in exile after being badly wounded by rebel shelling, the central government teetering on the verge of collapse and Muslim militants threatening to take over at least part of the country, the United States has stepped up its military operations in Yemen, conducting airstrikes under the command of Special Operations troops.

 

State Department cables released by WikiLeaks revealed the Obama administration’s attempts to cover up U.S. air strikes targeting al-Qaeda elements inside Yemen. An American communiqué from January 2010 showed Saleh reassuring U.S. General David Petraeus that his government would “continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours.”

 

The recent American attacks have sought to support Yemeni soldiers fighting militants linked to al-Qaeda in the southern part of the country. One airstrike last week killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, several other militant suspects and four civilians.

 

Prior to that assault, U.S. drones fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who’s been on an American “hit list” for more than a year. Awlaki is alleged to have encouraged Nidal Hassan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas on November 5, 2009, and Umar Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Northwest flight to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Awlaki survived the attack.

 

Leading the stepped up operations in Yemen is the Joint Special Operations Command, with assistance from the CIA.

 

Last year, the U.S. conducted several airstrikes in Yemen, but then called them off after it was discovered that poor intelligence had resulted in failed missions and civilian deaths.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes (by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times)

WikiLeaks Cables Confirm Suspected U.S. Warfare in Pakistan and Yemen (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)