Yemen admits receiving US military gear, anti-terrorism training

Jan 1, 2010, 10:00 GMT

Sanaa, Yemen - Yemen has received military equipment from the United States to aid the government's fight against the al-Qaeda network in the south of the country, an official said Friday.

'The United States helps Yemen train its counter-terrorism and coastguard forces and provide some military equipment in addition to sharing information about the elements of the terrorist organization,' said government spokesman Tariq al-Shami.

'The intelligence capacities of the United States are greater than the capacity of others in the region, especially since they use satellites,' the spokesman told media outlets.

Previously, the government had admitted to receiving only technical assistance and information to fight the network.

Most recently, the group's wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's Christmas Day attempt to blow up an aircraft over Detroit.

Officials in Sanaa have denied US media reports that the US military carried out the airstrikes and raids on December 17 and December 24, which together killed more than 60 suspected al-Qaeda militants in Yemen.

The Interior Ministry continued to identify some of the militants killed in those strikes, and on Friday announced that among the dead were Turki bin Saad bin Muhammed Qulais and Ibrahim al-Najdi, both Saudi nationals.

Local officials in the southern region have alleged civilians were also among those killed in the airstrikes that targeted what was said to be a meeting of senior al-Qaeda operatives, including fugitive Saudis.

Yemen, in the 1990s, welcomed back Arab fighters who left Afghanistan after the fall of the Soviet Union.

That, combined with a weak central government's loose control over poor areas, allowed al-Qaeda to set up bases in the south of the country, intelligence officials say.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, at times using different names before splintered wings merged, has been involved in earlier strikes on US targets, including a bombing at the Embassy in Sanaa in 2008, and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 that left 17 sailors dead.