AP sources: US warplanes hit al-Qaida target in Yemen last week

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AP sources: US warplanes hit al-Qaida target in Yemen last week

By Dozier,ine Jelinek, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press –

Thu, 9 Jun, 2011

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say American forces launched an airstrike against

al-Qaida targets in southern Yemen last week to keep al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoot

from taking advantage of the unrest in the Persian Gulf nation.

The officials said Thursday the strike by U.S. war planes last Friday killed a

midlevel al-Qaida operative named Abu Ali al-Harithi, and other followers.

It followed a May 5 drone strike that just missed al-Qaida cleric Anwar

al-Awlaki, due to a technical malfunction, two U.S. officials said. The

officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified operations.

Officials said neither strike was part of any change in policy or intentional

increase in counterterrorist operations, but they were launched because of

intelligence leading to the targets.

" These operations have not been stepped up, " one official said. " They are

dependent on the availability of the right information at the right time. "

While not confirming the strike, CIA Director Leon Panetta said his agency and

elite U.S. special operators were continuing to work with the Yemeni government

to keep the militants at bay, despite the ongoing revolt aimed at ousting

President Ali Abdullah Saleh. U.S. officials said al-Qaida in the Arabian

Peninsula was trying to exploit the situation to carry out further attacks.

The group has been behind some of the most creative recent terror attacks aimed

at the U.S., including last year's plot to put explosive devices on U.S.-bound

cargo planes, and the attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009.

" While obviously it's ... a scary and uncertain situation, with regards to

counterterrorism, we're still very much continuing our operations, " Panetta said

at his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday to become the next defence

secretary.

Separately, Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence

Committee, said aggressive action was needed now against al-Qaida in Yemen.

" I think this is a time to accelerate and try to take out the top al-Qaida

targets " there, she said on CNN. " If we do that, we believe there will be a

deterioration of al-Qaida. "

In his testimony Thursday, Panetta also said his officers were working together

with the military's elite and ultra-secret counterterrorism unit, the Joint

Special Operations Command, in Yemen and in other areas where al-Qaida is

active.

JSOC is officially described as a training organization, with its

terror-fighting role classified. Its operators, including Navy SEALs and Army

Green Berets, have been working with Yemeni military and counterterror forces

for years, fostering their ability to fight homegrown militants, U.S. officials

say.

" We're working with JSOC in their operations, " Panetta said. " Same thing is true

for Somalia. "

A JSOC helicopter raid in 2009 in Somalia killed al-Qaida militant Saleh Ali

Nabhan, who was thought to have helped plan the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies

in Kenya and Tanzania.

Elite special operations teams also have carried out direct attacks on al-Qaida

forces inside Yemen, including a December 2009 strike in which missiles were

fired from a Navy ship, co-ordinated with a small team of U.S. troops on the

ground.

Navy SEALs, under JSOC's command, carried out the May raid that killed al-Qaida

chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. In that operation, the SEALs technically were

under the CIA's control by orders of the president.