Please do not disturb me until this Women's NCAA girl's basketball game is over. My niece is about to score. [Al Ahram] US military personnel stationed at Al-Anad airbase in southern Yemen have been evacuated over security concerns, a Yemeni military source said on Saturday amid fighting involving Al-Qaeda snuffies nearby.
The troops left late Friday for an "unknown destination", the military source at the Yemeni base in restive Lahj
... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement
province told AFP.
Members of Yemen's anti-terror units, which are trained by US forces and based at Al-Anad, have also been evacuated, the source added.
At least 29 people were killed on Friday in festivities between Yemeni security forces and gunnies who included both Al-Qaeda members and separatists, in Lahj.
Yemen has acknowledged that American personnel gathering intelligence for drone strikes on Al-Qaeda are deployed at Al-Anad.
Yemen is a key US ally, allowing it to wage a long-standing drone war on its territory against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
, considered by Washington to be the most dangerous affiliate of the global jihadist organization.
| Much more from the Telegraph, courtesy of Hupineger Glomomp52169, who commented: |
Smart power: US evacuating 100 commandos from Yemen air base after AQ captures nearby town