Last week, the 2nd Military Region arranged a military parade in the city of Al Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout province, to mark the second anniversary of liberating Al Mukalla and neighbouring coastal areas from
Al Qaida militants who held those cities for one year.
Drone strikes have been concentrated in remote mountainous areas and valleys where
al Qaida's top five leaders are also believed to have sought refuge.
Earlier, the Yemeni security forces arrested Mohammad Abdu Saleh Al Hawdali in a raid implemented on December 30, on an
Al Qaida hideout in Hodeida province west of the country.
Al Qaida has started to use women suicide bombers, but it has refrained from using children, possibly on the grounds that the Koran frowns on it.
Bush called
al Qaida in Iraq the perpetrator of the worst violence racking that country and said it was the same group that had carried out the Sept.
Today's bombing ``clearly fits into
al Qaida's targeting framework''.
The US has identified five senior
Al Qaida operatives who they believe have been to Iran since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban from neighbouring Afghanistan.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Afghan forces were making remarkably quick progress against
al Qaida fighters in the valleys, and there were not a lot of ways out.
Three years ago
Al Qaida occupied Hadramout's capital of Al Mukalla, but the militants were largely uprooted thanks to UAE-backed efforts to rid the territory from their grip.
In Pakistan,
Al Qaida's leadership ranks have continued to suffer heavy losses.
Meanwhile, the US military said it had caught a suspected
Al Qaida militant believed to be behind the killing last week of a key Sunni Arab tribal leader in Anbar province.
As expected, however, the findings focus most of their attention on the gravest terror problem: Osama bin Laden's
al Qaida network.
