Battling the terrorists
U.S. News senior writer Kevin Whitelaw recently visited Yemen, an impoverished Muslim nation on the Arabian Peninsula that became a surprising U.S. ally in the wake of September 11. The Yemeni government has made some impressive strides when it comes to fighting terrorism, despite a few serious lapses like an embarassing prison break last month when 23 al Qaeda prisoners escaped through a tunnel. But now, Yemen is facing questions about its own crisis, as mounting poverty, declining oil resources, and suffocating corruption combine to threaten the nation's democratic progress–and perhaps its very existence. Whitelaw spent time with Yemenis from all walks of life – those in government, security, business, and education, along with a few of Yemen's legion of unemployed.
SANA, YEMEN—Yemen's elite Counterterrorism Unit, bolstered by rigorous U.S. training, has been deployed against a range of threats facing Yemen.
Not only have its soldiers been used to nab wanted al Qaeda fighters, including the group's top financier in Yemen, but they have also gone up against several tribal groups that kidnapped western tourists. In one operation in January, the CTU surrounded a compound where several Italian tourists were being held. After several hours of negotiations, the hostages were released and six of the eight kidnappers were captured.
Not all their operations, however, have been bloodless. Several times, the CTU has been sent to quell a simmering rebellion in the tribal areas of northern Yemen. Followers of the late cleric Hussein al-Houthi have been a very violent thorn in the side of Yemen's government since 2004. In September 2004, the CTU was sent to root the rebels out of their hideouts in a series of remote caves. Three soldiers were killed in the operation. After the rebellion flared up again a year ago, the CTU was sent to the northern city of Sadah. One soldier was killed in an ambush, and two others were killed when rebels infiltrated their lines.
Eventually, the rebels assaulted the city before being repelled by the CTU. Some two dozen rebel fighters were killed. But the rebellion simmers on.
"These people have been brainwashed," says Col. Yahya Saleh, the chief of staff for the Central Security Force, which oversees the CTU, and the president's nephew. "For them, it is a fight to the death."
The Yemeni government has portrayed the group as a terrorist one, insisting that the rebels had recently plotted against the U.S. Embassy in Sana. But U.S. officials say the group is still predominantly an internal rebellion.
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