A new statement today from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula says that last week’s attack on US ground troops in southern Yemen’s major city of Aden came after a dramatic increase in the presence of US troops in the area.
The statement suggested that the deployments were “in light of new political circumstances,” apparently the “election” of US-backed Major General Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in a single candidate vote, and said that there are now “large numbers of US soldiers in Aden in particular.”
Aden is an especially difficult city of the Hadi regime, because it is not only in close proximity to the Abyan Province, held decisively by AQAP and Ansar al-Sharia forces, but is also the capital of former Soviet-backed South Yemen, and the center of a still active southern Yemeni secessionist movement.
The Pentagon confirmed the attack on ground troops in Aden on Friday, a particularly noteworthy admission because the US had never previously admitted to having troops in Yemen. A statement by Ansar al-Sharia claimed one killed in the attack, but the Pentagon denies this claim.
Several U.S. soldiers died in Djibouti in mid February. Djibouti is just across the strategic entrance to the Suez and the port of Aden. A helicopter accident killed four U.S. soldiers and another soldier died on the ground. U.S. soldiers deaths in February were also reported in Bahrain and Dubai.
kind of funny americans need to rely on al quaeda to get truthful information about our governments actions.
the welcome party
And the next invasion begins… Not that it has ever stopped really.
And here's a great article by Jeremy Scahill on how the US has also managed to screw up in Yemen and accomplish the complete opposite of what it set out to do – or at least it said it had set out to do:
"The Dangerous US Game in Yemen"
http://www.thenation.com/article/159578/dangerous…