--- description: The local franchise of al-Qaeda has issued a claim of responsibility for the Detroit terrorism incident. It also boasts greater and more terrifying ambitions title: Yemen: Al-Qaeda's New Staging Ground? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623fe67b7abd155e/698a4809929fadd96ebfb05b/360_yemen_1228.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) # Yemen: Al-Qaeda's New Staging Ground? by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Dec 28, 2009 5:00 AM CUT  Yemenis in the Radfan district of Lahj protest the government raid that targeted suspected al-Qaeda members Yemenis in the Radfan district of Lahj protest the government raid that targeted suspected al-Qaeda membersAFP / Getty by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Dec 28, 2009 5:00 AM CUT The claim of responsibility was haughty, even though the operation it celebrated had failed. In an Internet posting on Dec. 28, the group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas demonstrated the “frailty” of American intelligence. The attempted bombing, the group claimed, was retaliation for U.S.-supported attacks on “Yemenite tribes in Abyan and Arhab, and finally in Shabwa,” in which “scores of Muslim women and children and families” were killed. According to the Yemeni government, the assaults, which started Dec. 17, were intended to destroy hideouts of al-Qaeda and other radical groups. These events, along with reports of expanding covert U.S. military operations in the country, have renewed focus on Yemen as one of the world’s foremost terrorist and Islamist crisis spots. Stretched around the southern heel of the Arabian Peninsula and home to 23.8 million people, Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. The region has long been a locus of militant Islamic ideologies and a fertile source of jihadi fighters. Thousands of Yemenis traveled to Afghanistan to battle the Soviets throughout the 1980s, and the Yemeni port of Aden was the site of the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, which killed 17 sailors. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Yemeni government became a more committed supporter of the U.S.’s antiterrorism efforts, helping with a Predator-drone attack that killed an al-Qaeda leader in 2002\. But as the U.S. shifted its attention to Iraq and Afghanistan in the following years, al-Qaeda began to regroup in Yemen. In early 2009, the U.S. director of national intelligence noted that Yemen was “re-emerging as a jihadist battleground and potential regional base of operations for al-Qaeda.” From Yemen, al-Qaeda could launch attacks on the Red Sea gateway to the Suez Canal and stage operations against Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf countries, not to mention prepare suicide bombers like Abdulmutallab to be deployed anywhere in the global airline network. Indeed, two of the planners believed to be behind the Detroit bombing were released from U.S. detention at Guantánamo in 2007 and returned to Yemen. Some analysts have accused the Yemeni government of slowing its pursuit of al-Qaeda recently because it fears being toppled. But Yemeni authorities insist they are doing their utmost. “Is al-Qaeda using Yemen as a base to attack the U.S.?” says a Yemeni official. “That may be their ambition, but first they are attacking Yemen itself. Our priority is to prevent this, which also coincides with American interests.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690301/yemen-al-qaedas-new-staging-ground/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6690301/yemen-al-qaedas-new-staging-ground/"},"headline":"Yemen: Al-Qaeda's New Staging Ground?","datePublished":"2009-12-28T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T17:09:55.190Z","description":"The local franchise of al-Qaeda has issued a claim of responsibility for the Detroit terrorism incident. 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