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War On Terrorism In YemenAs part of its "War on Terrorism",in the first months of 2002 the Bush Administration approved sending about 100 Special Operations Forces to Yemen, a power base for Al Qaeda. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States, President Ali Abdullah Saleh made an effort to eliminate the Islamic militant presence. Yemeni government troops detained many militants who trained at Al Qaeda camps. In December 2001, a search by government forces for two Yemeni believed to be senior al Qaeda members hiding near Marib led to a gun battle with tribesmen which ended in the deaths of 32 people, including 18 soldiers. To defuse the situation, ten Marib sheiks were detained as hostages of the state in comfortable rooms in the presidential palace for 35 days, until 43 lesser tribesmen took their place. In November 2002, 6 Yemeni suspected of being members of al Qaeda were blown up in their car in the province of Marib by a hellfire missile attack from an unmanned CIA RQ-1 Predator aircraft. In December 2002, Spanish troops boarded and detained a ship, at the request of the United States, that was transporting Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen. After two days, when the United States determined it had no right under international law to continue to detain the shipment, they let it continue on to Yemen. On December 30, 2002, a suspected Islamic fundamentalist killed three US workers and wounded one in a hospital in Jibla, using a semi-automatic rifle. The suspect was arrested and identified as Abid Abdulrazzaq Al-Kamil.
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