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Yemen said linked to guns in Saudi attack
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-12 09:21
Two AK-47 assault rifles used in a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in
Saudi Arabia have been traced to Yemen's Defense Ministry, according to Western
and Yemeni officials, raising new fears that the country isn't doing enough to
fight terrorism.
The revelation comes five years after al-Qaida-linked militants bombed the
USS Cole destroyer on Oct. 12, 2000, at the port in San'a, the capital, killing
17 sailors.
In other worrying developments, Yemeni militants are believed to be among
foreigners fighting U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials
have said.
Some Yemenis have even carried out suicide bombings in Iraq after their
release from prison here under a government program, say Yemeni officials cited
in local newspapers. Under the "dialogue" program Islamic fundamentalists are
let go in exchange for renouncing violence.
Despite the setbacks, the United States continues to boost its security
relationship with Yemen. Last week, it delivered more boats and equipment to the
country's coast guard ahead of Wednesday's fifth anniversary of the USS Cole
attack.
While U.S. officials publicly praise Yemen for curbing extremist groups,
Western and Yemeni diplomats privately say it must do more to lock down its
porous, 1,120-mile border with Saudi Arabia and prevent weapons and militant
smuggling.
Yemen is awash with weapons, and strong ties exist between its military and
tribal groups, which make up the backbone of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's
power base.
The Yemen government sometimes gives weapons to tribes to curry favor, and it
is believed the AK-47 rifles in question were likely smuggled into a black
market and bought by militants.
Two of the AK-47 assault rifles used in the Dec. 6 militant attack on the
U.S. consulate in the Saudi city of Jiddah were traced by their serial numbers
back to Yemen's Ministry of Defense, a Western diplomat told The Associated
Press, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. Five
consulate employees and four attackers died in the assault.
The diplomat said U.S. authorities have filed protests over the incident to
Yemeni officials, complaining that more should be done to safeguard weapons.
U.S. officials declined to confirm or deny the use of Yemeni weapons. But a
Yemeni Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the issue, said American and Saudi authorities have protested
the use of at least one Yemeni weapon in the Jiddah attack.
One of Yemen's most powerful tribal leaders, Sheikh Mohammed Naguib Shaif,
also said U.S. and Yemeni officials told him that Yemeni military weapons were
used in the Jiddah attack. Shaif also is a lawmaker aligned with the ruling
political party.
Shaif said the government must combat rampant corruption and reform its
judiciary to prevent the country from turning into another Afghanistan or Iraq.
"We can't establish security in Yemen before establishing an effective
judiciary to enforce laws," Shaif told AP from his heavily fortified compound in
San'a.
Yemen came under intense U.S. pressure after the attack on the USS Cole by
al-Qaida-linked militants, who rammed a dinghy packed with explosives into the
destroyer. Yemen was called on to do even more to combat terrorism after the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
During the past three years, the United States has spent more than $18
million to strengthen Yemen's coast guard to prevent smuggling and militants
entering from Horn of Africa nations.
In turn, Yemen has sentenced to death two detainees for the USS Cole attack,
including a Saudi held by U.S. authorities at an undisclosed location. It
ordered four other Yemenis jailed for five to 10 years.
A counterterrorism agent working for a Western government said the security
relationship between Western governments and Yemen "was nascent and growing"
with the West seeking more intelligence on what's happening in the farther
reaches of the country.
Yemen is the ancestral home of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was a
source of militants who fought in Afghanistan during its Soviet occupation.
Newspapers in Yemen, citing anonymous Yemeni security sources, have reported
that two Yemenis who died in a July suicide bombing in Baghdad were among more
than 360 Islamic extremists released from Yemeni custody since 2003, as part of
a "dialogue" program run by a senior judge with close ties to security
officials.
Supreme Court Judge Hamoud Abdulhamid Al-Hitar, however, said there was no
evidence to prove that two released militants carried out any Iraq suicide
attacks. But he acknowledged Yemeni security forces have caught dozens of young
Yemenis bound for Iraq in the past two months.
Al-Hitar said his dialogue sessions try to persuade extremists not to attack
Western or government interests inside Yemen, and to reintegrate them back into
society. He said Iraq is not addressed.
"We are not interested in dealing with issues in Iraq," Al-Hitar told AP. But
he added: "We try to tell them that it's not a duty to go to Iraq."
A key political opposition figure, Yemeni Socialist Party lawmaker Mohammed
Salah, claimed that the government has not cut ties to terrorists, and uses the
program to "get these people to support and work for the authorities."
"The government deals with terrorists in a way to keep them under their
control, to use them when it needs to," said Salah.
There may be little more Yemen's government can do given its limited control
over vast tribal areas and the Saudi border, meaning al-Qaida militants can
still move freely, said Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for
Strategic and International Affairs.
"The Yemeni central government has done what it can, but it is very weak,"
Cordesman said. "It is not a matter of the government not trying. But there are
limits to it can do."
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