Yemen, Al Qaeda | featured news

Hundreds of Islamic militants solidified their control over a town in southern Yemen Sunday after seizing tanks in clashes with fleeing soldiers, military officials said. Opponents of the country’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused him of allowing the militants to freely seize Zinjibar in a bid to stoke Western fears that al-Qaida would take over the country if he responded to demands by demonstrators to step down.

The wealth of information pulled from Osama bin Laden's compound has reinforced the belief that he played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, senior U.S. officials said Friday.

The withdrawal of security forces from some provinces has left a power vacuum that al-Qaeda is trying to fill.

Al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing claimed a foiled plot to send explosive parcels to the United States, and responsibility for a September UPS plane crash in Dubai in a statement that appeared on Islamist websites on Friday.

A Saudi bombmaker believed to be working with al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing is a key suspect in the parcel bomb plot against the United States, a U.S. official said on Saturday.

President Barack Obama approved secret joint U.S. military and intelligence operations with Yemeni troops that began six weeks ago and killed six regional al Qaeda leaders, The Washington Post reported.

Yemen's foreign minister says his country opposes any direct intervention by U.S. or other foreign troops in the fight against al-Qaida....

The United States and Britain announced today they have closed their embassies in Yemen because of security concerns.

A U.S. military commander said on Friday the United States will more than double its nearly $70 million security assistance program for Yemen, where a crackdown is underway on al Qaeda militants believed to be behind a failed plot to blow up a U.S. airliner.

A man described as "one of al Qaeda's most dangerous members" was arrested in Yemen, the Yemeni military, an embassy official and state-run news agency Saba said.