Report: CIA involved in Yemen since 2008

The war on terror is continuing in Yemen as the battle escalates and United States involvement grows by the day. A new report released on Monday shows that the CIA has been involved in Yemen since 2008.

Digital Journal has been reporting for about a month of the increase in violence and civilian deaths in Yemen, United President Barack Obama’s devotion to the region by supplying the country with intelligence, weaponry and tens of million dollars in aid and prominent officials declaring that Yemen will be “tomorrow’s war.” A new report released shows that the US and the CIA have opened a covert operation in Yemen against al-Qaeda to assist the nation’s military operations, according to AFP. In 2008, the CIA sent field operatives, who have experience in counterterrorism, to the region. The report further cites that the most secretive US special operations commandoes have begun training Yemeni security forces. Press TV notes that the Pentagon will be spending over $70 million over the next 18 months to train and equip the country’s military, while Yemen’s national security chief earlier declared that the US has been providing Yemen with assistance to stop al-Qaeda. Earlier this month, Houthi fighters accused the United States of conducting the military air raids that killed dozens of civilians but the government denied it and the Yemeni forces said they were the ones who attacked the northern region. Yemen is expected to receive a lot more attention since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet that flew from Amsterdam to Detroit, confessed that he trained in an al-Qaeda base in Yemen, reports The Australian. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Yemen has been working with local authorities to track any recent travel by Abdulmutallab in the country. The next question is: Will Yemen turn out to be Afghanistan during the 1970s and 1980s with Operation Cyclone that effectively created the Taliban?