Yemeni air attacks on 'al-Qaida fighters' risk mobilising hostile tribes

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from the Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/03/yemen-air-attacks-alqaida


Killing of tribal leader's wife and children sparks condemnation of Yemeni president and the west

When Yemeni MiG-29 aircraft sent missiles crashing into a suspected terrorist training camp in al-Majalah, a remote area of Abyan in the south, the local reaction quickly turned from horror to anger.

The raids, a week before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow up a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, succeeded in killing key figures in the Yemeni wing of al-Qaida which helped train him. Mohammed Saleh al-Kazimi, the leader of al-Qaida in Abyan and head of the local Ambor tribe, along with his wife and children, was among them. But they were far from the only casualties.

Local sources said about 50 people were killed, and some 60 injured. It was said that the al-Qaida fighters had been living in the village alongside their families, training at a camp just metres from the homes. But the deaths of women and children enraged some locals.

"Kazimi has the right to live with his family, and if he is a member of al-Qaida then he should have been punished alone," said Mukbel Ali al-Ambori, a leader of the Ambor tribe. "But 45 women and children and more than 1,000 animals were killed."

___ The recriminations in the aftermath of the al-Majalah raid underline the dilemmas facing the Yemeni government and its deeply unpopular western allies, as they combat the emerging terrorist threat in the country's east and south . . .

read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/03/yemen-air-attacks-alqaida


related:

U.K., U.S. to Create Counter-Terror Unit in Yemen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126247556246813679.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[malaise]

1. Shakes head and screams

I want off of this planet.

Rec

[Robb]

2. Damn if they did, damned if they didn't.

Either Yemeni planes go in and kill a lot of people, and make the government unpopular there, or U.S. missiles go in and kill fewer, and make the government even less popular.

Regardless, it's a great time to pat yourself on the back if you were offered a position in the government of Yemen and you took a pass.

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3. the resentment of the U.S. right now

. . . is so high in that region that our involvement provides an automatic source of animosity for the resistance there to exploit, whether we do the bombing or we assist or request it. So much of that dilemma we face has to do with our diminished reputation and the absolute rejection of the 'shock and awe' politics conducted behind the force of our military that we've mad a staple of our 'anti-terror' strategy. All of that U.S. animosity generated by our government's event-driven fear of al-Qaeda and our flailing defenses.