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U.S. Newspaper Reports Say U.S. Intends to Send Marines to Yemen
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States has asked Yemen to allow U.S. Marines to join in its search for fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network - the first military move against Osama bin Laden's network outside Afghanistan, reported a U.S. daily newspaper.
The George W. Bush administration had previously asked to send a small number of U.S. officials to Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines and other strongholds of al-Qaeda members and sympathizers, reported the
New York Post.
But on Tuesday, U.S. and Yemeni officials confirmed that Washington wants to send in the Marines and also set up a joint task force with CIA officials to coordinate anti-terror activity in Yemen, reported the
Post.
A Yemeni government source said the country was considering the request.
In Yemen, six members of the Yemeni security forces injured in clashes with tribesmen a week ago have died of their wounds, taking the death toll from a fierce battle in Marib province to 28, a medical source said, Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A gun and tank battle erupted in Al-Hosun village in Marib, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Sanaa, on December 18, while government troops were combing the area in search of suspected members of al-Qaeda.
"Six police and soldiers who were seriously wounded during the clashes died in hospital in the past two days," raising the death toll among security forces to 24, the source said. "Around 20 other police and soldiers also injured in the clashes remain in hospital."
A government source, meanwhile, told AFP that security forces were "pursuing their campaign against suspected al-Qaeda members and elements involved in terrorist acts" in the provinces of Marib and Shabwa, east of Sanaa, as well as Al-Juf northeast of the capital.
"Authorities also started rounding up dozens of former fighters in Afghanistan in various provinces at the end of last week," the source said.
Yemeni government authorities have simultaneously stepped up controls at border posts to prevent the escape of wanted suspects and stop terrorists from entering the country.
The government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is cracking down on outlaws and suspected al-Qaeda members, apparently in the hope of warding off a U.S. strike in a future phase of Washington's war on terror, said AFP.
However, the United States wants to arrest three al-Qaeda officials believed to be hiding in Yemen and protected by tribal leaders in mountainous areas, reported the
Post.
Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. Central Command, which is running the Afghan war, said there are several countries on Washington's potential anti-terror list.
"It is too early to suggest which countries, but it is not too early to remind ourselves that Sept. 11 put us on course . . . to root out this terrorist problem around the world," Franks said after addressing about 1,000 sailors in the hangar bay aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell praised Yemen's crackdown on the al-Qaeda network in a letter to the Yemeni President.
Powell "praised our country's efforts in the anti-terrorism struggle" in the letter delivered by U.S. ambassador Edmund Hull, according to the official Yemeni news agency, SABA.
Washington "supports Yemen in its anti-terrorism fight and has arranged to offer it the necessary aid to consolidate its capacities in this area," it quoted Powell as saying.
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