Iranian-backed Shias have been causing trouble for Yemen. And al Qaeda has sought refuge in Yemen.
So an alliance of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and America has formed to fight these forces. Saudi Arabia and Yemen are focused on the Iranian-backed threat while we and the Yemenis are hitting the al Qaeda targets:
Backed by U.S. intelligence, Yemeni forces struck a series of suspected al-Qaida hideouts Thursday, including a meeting of senior leaders, killing at least 30 militants in the country's stepped-up campaign against the terror network, the government said.
The airstrikes were Yemen's second such major assault on al-Qaida in a week, at a time when the United States has dramatically hiked its aid to the government to eliminate the expanding presence of the terror group. Washington fears that al-Qaida could turn fragmented, unstable Yemen into a new Afghanistan-like safe haven in a highly strategic location on the border with oil-rich U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon recently confirmed it is has poured nearly $70 million in military aid to Yemen this year — compared to none in 2008. The U.S. military has boosted its counterterrorism training for Yemeni forces, and is providing more intelligence, which probably includes surveillance by unmanned drones, according to U.S. officials and analysts.
I know people keep saying that our war on Islamist terrrorism is alienating the Arab and Moslem world, but we do manage to gain support from Arab governments and their people to fight the fanatics when they muck around in their part of the world.
Not that we don't have a long way to go in persuading Moslems that the jihadis are evil whether they target them or us. That's the only way we can finally win the war, as opposed to winning battles like those taking place in Yemen.
