Experts: Yemeni divisions ripe for exploitation by al-Qaida

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Experts: Yemeni divisions ripe for exploitation by al-Qaida
By Sudarsan Raghavan, The Washington Post
Mideast edition, Monday, January 11, 2010

ADEN, Yemen — A hatred of the government in southern Yemen is complicating U.S.-backed efforts to stem al-Qaida’s ambitions across the region, according to Western and Yemeni officials, analysts and human rights activists.

The concerns highlight the extent to which the United States, as it deepens its military engagement here, is teaming up with a government facing internal divisions that in some ways are more complex than those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In a speech last week, President Barack Obama said the United States has worked closely with its partners, including Yemen, “to inflict major blows” against al-Qaida. But experts familiar with the group here say it is poised to exploit the country’s divisions.

“Al-Qaida dreams of secession,” said Najib Ghallab, a political science professor at San‘a University. “It wants to turn the south into the perfect breeding ground for global terrorism.”

Once two countries, Yemen unified in 1990. But a brief civil war broke out in 1994. From the north, President Ali Abdullah Saleh dispatched thousands of Yemeni mujahedeen who had fought in Afghanistan as well as Salafists, who follow a strict interpretation of Islam, to fight the southerners.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67152