A US drone strike killed seven suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen. The operation followed the official announcement of Yemeni officials that Al Qaeda plans to seize two major oil and gas export terminals and a provincial capital. Arab nations remain on high alert following threats of a terror attack, which prompted Washington to shut down 19 diplomatic facilities in the Middle East and North Africa. It was the fifth drone strike in less than two weeks in Yemen, where Al-Qaeda is rapidly gaining power. The Voice of Russia discussed the revival of US drone program and the current terrorist threat in the region with Sama'a Al-Hamdani, a Yemeni political analyst.
What prompted the revival of the drone program in Yemen?
I think that is the question that all of us wants to know the answer to. In Yemen on the ground we are not really sure what is going on. All we know is that the attack was picked up by the US and that a state of alarm happened in the country and then all over sudden we had 3 drone strikes 3 days in a row. Today is Eid. Many families are celebrating. The last thing they want to think about is “are we going to be droned tonight”. The problem is the Yemeni government is not really talking to the people and we are not sure what is going on.Continue After The Break...
How big is the terrorist threat in the Middle East, and particularly in Yemen?
There is a big gap between what you read in the media and what is actually happening on the ground. The Yemeni people are mostly talking about what is going on in Egypt. Until lately they would talk about that there has been a drone here or there but it is not really covered that much in the media. I think people are worried because they are realizing that something is different now because in the past 2 weeks we’ve had 6 drone attacks. So, there is something going on but people are not really aware of what is going on.
They are not necessarily terrified by Al-Qaeda because they are not attacking anyone in Yemen. But I think in general they don’t want Al-Qaeda there, they don’t want terrorists in their country and most people just want to live, they want their country back, they want to rebuild it. Since the 2011 revolution they haven’t had a chance to do that.
Yemeni officials recently issued a statement offering 23.000 dollars bounty for information leading to the capture of the 25 most wanted terrorists. The authorities also said that there was a concrete evidence that there is a terrorist attack that has been planned for next weekend. I am just wondering
?what kind of response there has been to that so far?
The list was released online and it was announced on the 9 pm news, however, a lot of people in Yemen are not even aware about the story, because the authorities are constantly playing on Yemeni media. It is more available for people outside in the west who can read. I think there is a huge gap between what is actually going on on the ground in Yemen and what is going on outside. People are scared, not a lot of people have heard about it, they don’t know what is going on. The foreign embassies in Yemen have high security around it to begin with.
I haven’t seen any increase in security, however, there are no foreigners anymore and embassies, so even if they target them, nobody would be hurt, no one is there. What I am trying to portray to you is that on the ground people don’t really know what is going on. We just follow the news from outside like everybody else. I think people outside of Yemen are fully aware of what is going on more than people in Yemen.
Are people afraid of drones? Are they afraid of a next drone attack?
It has been heard of before that drones don’t always get their men, they sometimes get innocent citizens.
There was attack on two different places and the attacks were targeting Samir Al-Maruani, the attacks didn’t get him to get his 3 children. And in the capital there haven’t been any attacks, there was a plane hovering over Yemen. It is pretty much a spy plane and what it does is it sends vibrations throughout the city and even though it is not a drone, the people are terrified by the plane because they don’t know what it is doing there, they don’t know what is going to happen
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