West fuel Yemen, Somali militancy
UK: Western counter-terrorism support for state security
forces in Yemen and neighbouring Somalia may actually be fuelling
militancy because such backing is often seen locally as a form of
aggression, a report said on Thursday.
"Western policies are contributing to a sense among some Yemenis and
Somalis of being 'under attack' and are drawing them towards
radicalisation and militancy," the report from the Chatham House think
tank said.
"Instead of more military training or more missile strikes, there
need to be new political configurations that can support networks of
resistance to terrorism," the report by associate fellows Sally Healy
and Ginny Hill said. Yemen, next door to oil exporter Saudi Arabia,
jumped to the forefront of Western security concerns after a botched
December 25 bid to blow up a U.S. airliner over Detroit claimed by
Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
In Somalia, across the Gulf of Aden, al Shabaab rebels have been
fighting a weak transitional government for three years and now controls
much of the south and centre of the country.
Both groups have recruited Western-based militants. Speaking in
Washington on August 25, US officials said the United States would
likely increase strikes against al Qaeda in Yemen, seeking to apply the
same degree of pressure there as covert drone attacks in Pakistan have
had on al Qaeda there.The report said Washington was arming, training
and funding local proxies in Yemen to carry out its counter-terrorism
aims, while in Somalia a Western-funded African peacekeeping force has
struggled to support a weak transitional government. London, Thursday,
Reuters
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