Al-Qaeda’s Yemen Branch Eyes a New Haven

Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen is focusing on expanding its presence in a remote eastern province that is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, even as the group remains the target of U.S. drone strikes and Yemeni military assaults, according to Yemeni officials.

Last year, a U.S.-backed Yemeni military offensive drove the militants from the southern province of Abyan, which the fighters had seized during the Arab Spring revolt in the country and controlled for more than a year as they sought to create an Islamic emirate from which to attack the Yemeni government and Western targets.

But in recent months, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, as the affiliate is known, has bolstered its presence in Hadramaut, the country’s largest province. Hadramaut — which some scholars say roughly translates as “Death is among us” — abuts Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally.

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In light of the growing criticism, the administration had cut back on drone attacks this year. Recently, however, the pace has intensified. On Thursday, two U.S. drone strikes killed nine suspected militants, the Associated Press quoted Yemeni military officials as saying. They were the sixth and seventh such attacks in less than two weeks. Since July 27, drone attacks have killed 31 suspected militants, according to an AP count of the dead based on details provided by Yemeni security officials.

Over the past year, Hadramaut has been a target of airstrikes. From mid-May to December last year, there were seven U.S. drone strikes in the province — about 17 percent of the total such raids in Yemen in 2012, according to the Long War Journal, a Web site that monitors drone attacks. Before May 2012, there were no strikes in Hadramaut. Last week, a strike in the province killed five alleged AQAP militants, according to the Web site.

Portions of Hadramaut have been AQAP bastions for several years, but what is new is the group’s effort to make the province its main stronghold, said Alsarari and other Yemeni officials. Hadramaut, which covers a third of Yemen, is one of the poorest and most geographically inhospitable regions in the Arabian Peninsula, and the highly conservative tribal society there practices a strict form of Islam. Such conditions help AQAP win recruits and sympathy.

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