A brazen territorial grab by Al Qaeda militants in Yemen —
together with a $1-million bank heist, a prison break and capture of a military
base — has given the terrorist group fundraising and recruitment tools that
suggest it is following the brutal path blazed by Islamic State militants in
Syria and Iraq. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which was long forced into
the shadows by U.S. drone strikes and commando raids, has taken advantage of
the growing chaos in Yemen's multi-sided war to carve out a potential haven
that counter-terrorism experts say could help it launch terrorist attacks. After
seizing a regional airport and a coastal oil terminal this week, Al Qaeda
militants consolidated their gains Friday in Mukalla, an Arabian Sea port. AQAP
has repeatedly attempted to smuggle sophisticated bombs onto passenger jets and
cargo planes headed for the United States. U.S. intelligence considers it the
terrorist network's most active and most dangerous franchise and says it has a
global strategy. The fighting in Yemen has hobbled a long-established U.S.
counter-terrorism operation, forcing a special operations unit and intelligence
officials to destroy equipment and abandon the country last month. Yemen has
been engulfed in conflict since last fall, when a Shiite Muslim minority group
called the Houthis overran the capital city, Sana, and took over much of the
government. AQAP has captured territory before. In 2011, the group took
advantage of political turmoil sparked by anti-government protests to seize
several cities in Yemen's south and east. In mid-2012, military forces and
local tribes loyal to Hadi's government in Sana pushed them back into a rugged
eastern enclave.
Clifton Coleman
4-24-15
6:06
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-us-alqaeda-20150418-story.html#page=1
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