Hundreds of Al Qaeda in Yemen
Yemen's foreign minister Abu Nakr al-Kurbi has called for more Western help against what he said were "hundreds" of Al-Qaeda militants in the country.
"We need more training; we have to expand our counter-terrorism units and this means providing them with the necessary training, military equipment, ways of transportation," Kurbi told the BBC late on Tuesday.
"There is support, but I must say it is inadequate," he said.
He stressed that the Al-Qaeda presence in Yemen posed a threat and warned the jihadists could plot attacks similar to the attempted bombing of a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day claimed by their Yemeni arm.
"Of course there are a number of Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen and some of their leaders ... I can't give you really an exact figure. Maybe hundreds of them, 200, 300," he said.
"They may actually plan for attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit."
Kurbi's comments came as CNN television reported US special forces were working with their Yemeni counterparts to identify Al-Qaeda targets in the impoverished Arabian peninsula republic for possible military action.
"US special operations forces and intelligence agencies, and their Yemeni counterparts, are working to identify potential Al-Qaeda targets in Yemen," CNN quoted a US source as saying.
And The New York Times, citing an unnamed former CIA official, reported Sunday that a year ago the Central Intelligence Agency sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the Yemen.
In the most spectacular attack by the jihadists in Yemen so far, Al-Qaeda suicide bombers killed 17 US sailors on the destroyer USS Cole in the southern port of Aden in October 2000.
