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| Arabia |
| US backs Yemen's raids on Qaeda: report |
| 2009-12-20 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The United States gave military hardware, intelligence and other support to Yemeni forces who raided suspected al-Qaeda hide-outs this week, U.S. media reported on Saturday. Officials in Washington familiar with the operations said the U.S. help, approved by President Barack Obama, had been given at the request of the Yemeni government, The New York Times reported. The support was intended to help Yemen prevent al Qaeda from mounting attacks on American and other foreign targets inside its borders, the Times reported. "Yemen should be commended for actions against al-Qaeda," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, told the newspaper. Yemeni said on Thursday its security forces had foiled a planned series of suicide bombings by attacking targets including a Qaeda training centre in the southern province of Abyan and sites in Arhab district. About 30 Qaeda militants were killed and 17 arrested in Abyan and in Arhab, northeast of the capital Sanaa, it said. Several fighter planes took part in the raid and hit a civilian area by mistake, a local official in Abyan told AFP. Abyan is a part of the former South Yemen republic authorities say has become a regrouping base for Islamist militants. Raids also took place in the capital Sanaa and the neighboring district of Arhab, to the northeast, a defense ministry official. Some of the strikes against suspected Qaeda hideouts in Yemen this week were undertaken by local forces alone, U.S. officials told the Times. |
| Posted by:Fred |