Warning signals from Yemen

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WEDNESDAY'S shocking attack on the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in which 16 people died, four of them innocent civilians, is cause for the gravest concern because it indicates that despite government efforts to crush them, militants, including Al-Qaeda, remain at large in the country and are able to strike at will, even at well defended targets. This was the second attack on the US Embassy in six months.

Whether those responsible for it were part of the Al-Qaeda network is impossible to say at present; but it is highly likely. Certainly a group calling itself Islamic Jihad, thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility. Moreover, the attack, with a suicide car bomber trying to blast open the embassy's heavily fortified main gates and militants disguised as policemen then attacking the guards, had all the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda operation.

Al-Qaeda has been operating in Yemen since before 9/11. Its most notorious attack was on the USS Cole outside the port of Aden in October 2000 in which 17 American sailors died. Since then, the Yemeni authorities have tried to destroy the organization; but with limited success. Ever since 23 leading militants escaped from jail in Sanaa two years ago in an operation that could not have happened without help from within the prison service, violence has been on the rise. In the past 15 months, 10 European tourists were murdered along with their Yemeni guides in attacks that the authorities say were the work of Al-Qaeda; there was the earlier attack on the US Embassy as well as attacks on a residential compound, on the Yemen Customs Authority, the Italian Embassy and oil company offices.

It may be impossible to state with any certainty that Al-Qaeda's local operatives were involved in all these attacks; unlike this latest attack, some were less than "professional" (last March's mortar attack on the US Embassy hit a girls school instead). But clearly Al-Qaeda has a powerful base in the country with some security experts thinking that Yemen now constitutes its most important haven outside Pakistan. Of course, Yemen is nothing like Waziristan or the North West Frontier; it is not a danger spot; foreigners can and do move around the country without any great risk. Nonetheless, following the US Embassy blast, the threat from the so-called Islamic Jihad to target Saudi, Emirati and British embassies and interests must be taken seriously.

That Saudi Arabia has been singled out may indicate a link with Saudi militants who fled south across the border following the successful clampdown on extremists here -- and a desire for revenge on their part. That some Saudi deviants ended up in Yemen is possible. Last month, following the discovery of plans by Yemeni-based militants to attack Saudi as well as Yemeni targets, eight Saudi suspects were handed over by the Yemenis to the Saudi police.

A possible tie-up between Saudi and Yemeni extremists can also be seen in the similarity of attacks in Yemen and those in the Kingdom in 2004 and 2005 -- on residential compounds, oil companies; the attack on the US Embassy in Sanaa is very similar to that on the US Consulate in Jeddah in 2004.

The fact that terrorists are operating in Yemen because they cannot operate in the Kingdom thanks to the anti-terrorist policies here is no cause for satisfaction whatsoever. The Saudi clampdown needs to be copied in Yemen. It is vital. Otherwise the militants will be able to continue their attacks and their plotting there.

© Arab News 2008