The US military has continued to expand its presence in Yemen, with the number of “elite trainers” having doubled in the past year. Beyond the increase in numbers the training provided to the Yemeni forces is seen as getting more elaborate.

The Obama Administration’s direct role in Yemen has been understated often, with only the occasional overt military strike and a lot of talk about expansions of attacks that so far have not come to pass.

But massive increases in military aid as well as the training program point to the very clear designs the administration has on the troubled nation, and the constant talk of the threat posed by militants in the nation seem to be setting the stage for more to come.

Yemen’s government seems keen to keep the US role as quiet as possible, however, with officials forever downplaying the threat posed by its various conflicts. The nation is currently fighting three distinct wars, against a Shi’ite separatist group in the north, a Socialist separatist group in the south, and the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula faction, whose base of operations includes many of the same regions in the south.

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