Yemen FM Warns US Against Sending Combat Troops

'Direct Intervention Complicates Things'

by Jason Ditz, January 06, 2010

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has a message for the Obama Administration, even as it seems to be shoring up plans to launch additional military strikes into the country: keep the combat troops out.

Qirbi says that Yemen would welcome additional American military trainers into the country as it fights not only a growing al-Qaeda faction but also a pair of civil wars, but says the Yemeni government does not want ground troops.

“I’m sure that their experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistani will be very useful to learn from,” Qirbi noted, “that direct intervention complicates things.”

US forces have launched missile attacks into Yemen, coordinated with the Yemeni government, and are providing the nation with not only training, but weapons. The evidence suggests the administration has actually been fighting a covert war in Yemen for months now, but the shift from covert to overt seems to be scaring the already tenuous Yemeni officials.

Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz