Yemeni Airstrikes and Raids Strike Al Qaeda Training Bases

The Yemenis are trying to balance their attacks against al Qaeda elements in the country as well as the Houthi rebels and yesterday was al Qaeda's turn to feel the brunt of it.

From the article at Times Online:

Yemeni soldiers and warplanes launched raids on a number of al-Qaeda bases, killing as many as 34 militants and preventing suicide bombers from carrying out planned attacks at home and abroad, government officials said.
In the largest of the raids, the Yemeni Army — which is also fighting a Shia rebellion in the northwest of the country — hit a suspected terrorist training camp in the southern province of Abyan, killing between 24 and 30 people.
There are fears that the impoverished state is becoming a new haven for a resurgent al-Qaeda and a number of linked extremist groups.
It said that foreign nationals were among the dead, without specifying where they were from.

It's becoming quite clear that Yemen is becoming the near Middle East's "Pakistan" as al Qaeda linked jihadists from all over the bloody world are flooding in and when you couple that influx with the already substantial number of Houthi rebels at war with the Yemenis, the sands of Yemen are gonna end up real red. A real shame, isn't it?

Yemen kills at least 34 militants in fresh raids against al-Qaeda

Yemeni soldiers and warplanes launched raids on a number of al-Qaeda bases, killing as many as 34 militants and preventing suicide bombers from carrying out planned attacks at home and abroad, government officials said.
In the largest of the raids, the Yemeni Army — which is also fighting a Shia rebellion in the northwest of the country — hit a suspected terrorist training camp in the southern province of Abyan, killing between 24 and 30 people.
There are fears that the impoverished state is becoming a new haven for a resurgent al-Qaeda and a number of linked extremist groups.
It said that foreign nationals were among the dead, without specifying where they were from.

Four would-be suicide bombers were also killed in a separate raid on another base in the Arhab district, north of the capital, Sanaa. In total 34 al-Qaeda members were killed and a further 17 were in custody. Of the prisoners, four were said to be suicide bombers, one of whom was wounded in the clashes.
“The operation led to the foiling of an al-Qaeda plan aiming to hit foreign and local interests and schools, including eight suicide bombers who were preparing explosive belts to carry out the plan,” a Yemeni official said.
Officials said that the targets of the suicide bombers were both inside Yemen and abroad.
The operations also resulted in civilian casualties, witnesses and a security official said. Several homes were destroyed in Abyan and other stormed by government soldiers who mistook them for al-Qaeda hideouts. One witness reported that the bodies of seven women and children were among the rubble after the fighting.
The raids appeared to be an attempt to prevent the rise of the terrorist group in Yemen, which is where Osama bin Laden’s family originated and where al-Qaeda has carried out attacks in the past, including a suicide bombing on the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors. The terror group has also targeted the US Embassy and tourists visiting the country.
Yemen has been fighting a Shia insurgency in the north led by so-called Huthi rebels demanding more rights. Last month the conflict dragged in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which said that the guerrillas had entered its territory and overrun a small town on the poorly defined border. It responded with air strikes and ground attacks that drove out the Shia fighters, but not before Iran, the regional Shia superpower, had issued a thinly veiled warning to Riyadh.
The fighting has combined with falling oil income, an impending water shortage and a growing secessionist movement in the south. The violence raises concerns that Yemen — situated on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which are used by the world’s leading oil exporters — could become a failed state.
A senior Gulf official said this week that the US-allied six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council had agreed to create a joint rapid deployment force to tackle security threats in the region, in particular in cases such as the Huthi incursion in Saudi Arabia. Gulf states are also mulling financial aid to help the troubled country.