Yemen accedes to U.S. pressure to "do something"

The Yemeni military has stepped up its attacks on al-Qaeda over the last 72 hours -- a reflection of increased American pressure. And several reports say Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh approved a U.S. cruise missile strike against a suspected al-Qaeda target inside Yemen.

Yemeni troops, backed by helicopters and bombers, launched two raids on Thursday -- one in the southern province of Abyan, and the other in Arhab, a district north of the capital. Roughly 30 people were killed in the fighting, according to the government.

Witnesses in Abyan put the death toll higher: They say 50 people were killed in the attack, many of them civilians, because jets mistakenly bombed a civilian neighborhood.

Al-Hayat reports (عربي) that al-Qaeda-linked "armed groups" retaliated by attacking government positions in Abyan's Lawdar district. Several survivors of the raid were reportedly found in a hospital in the port city of Aden, where they were arrested.

Yemeni media reported that the raids targeted an al-Qaeda cell that was plotting attacks against the government.

Pro-government media reported that eight al-Qaida operatives and explosive belts prepared for suicide bombing attacks on schools and Yemeni and foreign targets had been found in Sana'a. Those captured in Abyan included foreigners.

Still, news of the raid comes as a bit of a surprise. The Yemeni government is threatened by an insurgency in the north and an increasingly aggressive separatist movement in the south; Saleh views al-Qaeda as a tertiary concern.

But Saudi Arabia is increasingly concerned about al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Saudi officials broached the issue at this week's Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Kuwait City, and the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, mentioned it to U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton during their meeting this week.

U.S. officials are also worried about AQAP. So the Abyan and Arhab raids are a reflection of growing U.S. and Saudi pressure on the Saleh government to "do something" about al-Qaeda.

Saleh, presumably, is hoping for a quid pro quo: He'll move against al-Qaeda in return for U.S. military aid and Saudi assistance in fighting the Huthi rebels. Indeed, the New York Times reports that the U.S. provided "firepower and intelligence" for the al-Qaeda raids.

And the House of Saud didn't disappoint either, according to The Guardian:

News of the action against al-Qaida coincided with reports that Saudi infantry, supported by aircraft and artillery, had mounted new operations to block infiltration across the border between the two countries by Yemeni Houthi rebels.

The al-Arabiyya television channel reported that the rebels had fired katyusha rockets into Saudi territory. Yemeni forces mounted an offensive against the Houthis in August, with the Saudis joining the operation in early November after rebel forces crossed the border.

ABC News also reports that Saleh approved a U.S. cruise missile strike against a suspected senior al-Qaeda target. Bill Roggio, relying on his usual unnamed sources, says the main target was Qasim al-Rimi.

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