Yemen Foils Terror Plans–Prevents Disaster
Just about a week after the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, details of another attempt hit the international news. On September 17, 2008 it was reported that in Yemen’s capital city Sana, terrorist group, al-Qaeda, had tried to storm the US Embassy compound and kill everyone inside. Yemen’s security forces were able to thwart the attack. Regardless, 16 people were killed (none of whom were Americans).
The attack signals great problems specifically within Yemen’s borders and generally in the international sphere. Firstly, al-Qaeda’s gaining ground in Yemen has produced fears that the US and its allies are losing the War on Terror. Within Yemen itself, authorities commented that the attack came as retaliation against Yemeni President, Ali Abdallah Salih. Officials believe the terrorist plot might have been a response to the “recent raids by Yemeni security forces against al-Qaeda, in which senior militant Hamza al-Quaiti was killed. Militants had also threatened more attacks if Yemeni authorities fail to free detainees.”
The September 17 terror plan, according to an unidentified source familiar with the government report, claimed the attack involved substantial and abundant weaponry, planning, and money. The timing was significant–supposedly designed to catch security operatives at the embassy off-guard after they had woken up early for the “sohour meal before beginning the day’s Ramadan fast”. This illustrates how such terrorists play on cultural and religious values and traditions in carrying out their plans.
The terrorists allegedly drove up to the embassy in the guise of Yemeni personnel. The attack, had it not been thwarted, would have been disastrous. For, “the terrorists’ aim, according to officials, was to use the vehicle as a bomb blitz to blow apart the heavily fortified front gate about 200 yards away. According to the plan, a second vehicle loaded with commandos armed with automatic weapons and grenades would speed through the breach and enter the embassy’s chancery building located another 200 yards inside the compound”. The embassy’s security guards luckily did not let the terrorists’ first vehicle into the property, thus foiling the plan.
Yemen has been the home to many terrorist attacks. One of al-Qaeda’s first terrorist acts took place at two hotels in the port of Aden in 1992 (aimed at US troops in route to Somalia). Also, in 2002 the group attacked the U.S.S. Cole in Aden’s harbor, killing 17 U.S. servicemen. The US embassy in Yemen is a common target for the terrorists. Just three months prior to 9/11, eight people were arrested for planning to bomb the facility.
The most recent attack also raises issues that link Yemen, the US, and the Middle East and the West in general in an intricate relationship. The US sees Yemen as a necessary ally in its War on Terror. Yet the US has traditionally found fault with Yemen’s “lax” attitude to criminals, particularly “sentencing hardened militants to short prison terms and freeing repatriated Guantanamo Bay detainees.”
The attack illustrates how nations at opposite ends of the world are tied together in their goal of fighting global terrorism. However, different motivating factors and ideologies affect the ways in which nations carry out their work. How countries interact to deal with and fight a common cause such as terrorism is an interesting study in sociology, political science and international relations.
Jenna Hootstein
