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US Ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Tueller – Reuters


Washington: We Will Terminate Qaeda in Yemen

by | Mar 4, 2017 | Middle East |

Washington: We Will Terminate Qaeda in Yemen

London – United States forces continued for the second day its operations targeting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) based in Yemen.

AQAP pockets in each of Shabwah and al-Bayda provinces, registered at least 30 raids in the last 48 hours.

“This is part of a plan to go after this very real threat and ensure that they are defeated and denied the opportunity to plot and carry out terrorist attacks from ungoverned spaces,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said, noting America would continue to attack AQAP.

The increased bombing comes a little more than a month after a botched American raid against AQAP left multiple civilians and a US Navy SEAL dead.

A defense official in Washington told AFP that American forces conducted “about 10” strikes in Yemen on Friday alone.

“Our goal is to terminate Qaeda and ISIS in Yemen”, former United States Ambassador to Yemen and Kuwait Matthew Haywood Tueller told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The US currently is leading a fierce campaign against al Qaeda and ISIS in Yemen, in an ardent desire to eliminate the terror organizations that brought nothing but death and destruction to Yemen, Tueller added.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has registered more activity in two months than the previous administration did over the course of 2016.

At least 32 strikes have been confirmed and another 11 raids have possibly been carried out, according to, a nonprofit European investigative institution reported.

A United Nations report that Asharq Al-Awsat got a hold of shows AQAP is responsible for staging over 200 attacks in Yemen, added to the terror group aspiring to stage attacks outside the country. The January 29 raid was the first to be authorized by President Donald Trump.

AQAP has about 2,000 to 3,000 members, a US defense official said. According to Yemeni officials, at least 12 suspected militants were killed in Thursday’s strikes.

On Friday, US warplanes hit three targets in the Yashbam Valley before dawn, one of them the home of AQAP Shabwa province commander Saad Atef, tribal sources said.