Al Qaeda Thrives In Yemen Amid Weak Security, Stalled Dialogue

[Ron Burgundy]

By Yara Bayoumy MANAMA (Reuters) - Brazen al Qaeda attacks on top government targets in Yemen are unlikely to abate while security services remain divided, ill-equipped and infiltrated by militants, and efforts to repair the country's fractured political life remain stalled. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), an offshoot of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is among the most active arms of the global jihadi network and wants to topple the government and impose its own strict version of Islamic law. "This demonstrates the seriousness of ... terrorist attacks, it demonstrates that al Qaeda obviously has planners, and executors and capabilities," Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told Reuters on the sidelines of a security conference in the Bahraini capital Manama. Islamist insurgents took advantage of the chaos of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's overthrow after months of mass protests in 2011 to seize several southern cities, but were driven out in a government offensive a year later aided by U.S. drone strikes.

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