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US to boost military presence in Yemen

The Obama administration has laid a military plan in the Middle East with “mobilizing military and intelligence resources” to Yemen to allegedly fight terrorism.

According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Washington has stepped up pressure on Yemen for what it calls al-Qaeda’s use of Yemeni soil as a safe haven for terrorist operations against the US.

A senior Obama administration official claimed that limited US intelligence experience in Yemen has created “a window of vulnerability” that the US government is “working fast to address.”

Last week, The Washington Post cited top US officials that the US deployed unmanned Predator drones in Yemen to allegedly eradicate al-Qaeda militants.

The drones have been patrolling the Yemeni skies for several months in search of al-Qaeda leaders and operatives allegedly hiding in the country, according to the report.

This is while Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mujawar has repeatedly criticized the West for linking al-Qaeda to his country.

“Al-Qaeda is mainly a Western-made group,” Mujawar said. The militant group “was not created in Yemen at all as it is being alleged by those who propagate this perception internationally about Yemen.”

His comments hinted at America’s funding of fighters in Afghanistan who were resisting the Soviet occupation back in the 1980s.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, the US invaded Afghanistan in order to eradicate al-Qaeda and Taliban militants — whom Washington accused of being behind the attacks.

However, as the war entered its tenth year, the US has failed to present sufficient evidence proving that the al-Qaeda was behind the incident.

Another exampled of Washington military adventurism is the invasion of Iraq.

When the Afghan war was in its second year, the administration of George W. Bush invaded Iraq under the pretext that former Iraqi dictator was hiding weapons of mass destruction, but such weapons were never found.

Moreover, recently released documents by the UK’s Iraq war inquiry suggest that the American and British leaders knew that Iraq was not in possession of such weapons prior to the invasion.

The US now claims that it is planning to begin a new front in Yemen in order to deploy troops to search for al-Qaeda leaders.

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