Yemeni government losing battle with al-Qaeda

Yemeni officials have admitted they are losing the battle against al-Qaeda, as the terrorist group extends its reach into remote regions where state control is non-existent.

Al-Qaeda has emerged as a particularly potent force in the past eight months after it was reinforced by a large number of new arrivals from Saudi Arabia who had access to considerable funding, but have found they are no longer able to operate in Saudi.

Dividing themselves into small cells, they embedded themselves among nomadic Bedouin tribes in the mountains so cut off from the modern world that many had not heard of al-Qaeda, experts claim.

The new arrivals, with assistance from their Yemeni counterparts, found it easy to win acceptance. Introducing themselves as religious scholars, they have set themselves up as an alternative government, digging wells, offering religious schooling to unemployed youngsters and doling out AK-47s to weapons-hungry tribesmen.

An air strike against a Bedouin mountain encampment called Maajala on Christmas Eve killed 14 al-Qaeda members, but it also killed 45 tribesmen. Future strikes only risk deepening sympathy for al-Qaeda and turning people against the United States and the Yemeni government.