US exaggerating al-Qaeda threat in Yemen

The US exaggerates the al-Qaeda threat in Yemen as the group’s members are too few to turn it into a global threat, a report says.

The report in Le Figaro says that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s remark regarding al-Qaeda being a threat to world security is an exaggeration.

According to the report, there are an estimated 200 to 300 alleged al-Qaeda members in southern Yemen.

The Yemeni president is seemingly playing up the threat to receive the utmost financial aid from an upcoming London meeting, according to Le Figaro.

Unlike the US and Britain, Le Figaro says France, Italy and Spain have been reluctant to join in the media hype.

The report has also criticized Saudi raids against Houthi fighters over the past months. It says the attacks have only worsened the war in northern Yemen.

Civilians have been the main victims of the all-out war which has been fueled by foreign military intervention in the poor Arab country.

The conflict in North Yemen began in 2004 between Sana’a and Houthi fighters. Relative peace had returned to the region until August 11, 2009 when the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed ‘Operation Scorched Earth’, against Sa’ada Province.

The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 military coup.

The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people’s civil rights, which the government has undermined because of pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists.

Shia citizens of Yemen form a clear majority in the north and make up approximately half of the overall population.

The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up “to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,” has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war.