Word: johnsen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...recent U.S.-assisted attacks on alleged al-Qaeda strongholds in Yemen appear to be a stepped-up attempt to stamp out the threat. However, Gregory Johnsen, a Princeton University expert on Yemen, contends the strategy will ultimately prove counterproductive: "You can't just kill a few individuals and the al-Qaeda problem will go away." Indeed, a primary target in the attacks - Qasim al-Raymi, the al-Qaeda leader who is believed to be behind a 2007 bombing in central Yemen that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis - is still at large. And reports of a U.S. role, plus...
...have resulted in a number of civilian casualties, may not right the situation at all. "The U.S. has been growing very concerned about al-Qaeda in recent years, but it seems as though the U.S. is coming rather late to the party," says Princeton University Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen, who contends last week's attacks would ultimately prove counterproductive...
Immediately after 9/11, a combined U.S.-Yemeni effort to decapitate the Islamist group's leadership in the country and dismantle its infrastructure met with considerable success, Johnsen says. But since 2006, al-Qaeda has managed to regroup and grow stronger as Yemen's government struggles to hold on to its territory amid multiple rebellions and rising poverty. Now, Johnsen adds: "You can't just kill a few individuals and the al-Qaeda problem will go away." (See a story about whether Iran is causing trouble in Yemen...
...central Yemen that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis - is still at large. And reports of a U.S. role, and mass civilian casualties at the sites of the attacks, have sparked a public outcry and added to anti-American sentiments across the country. "They missed that individual," says Johnsen of the targeted al-Qaeda chief. "And at the same time, they ended up killing a number of women and children in the strike on Abyan. So now you have something where there are all these pictures of dead infants and mangled children that are underlined with the caption 'Made...
...carry out [an attack] like this, you have to have done a great deal of field work, where you've sort of undermined al-Qaeda through development and aid so that when something like this happens, al-Qaeda can't easily replace the individuals that it has lost," says Johnsen. "But if you don't take those steps then the pool of recruits just starts to multiply exponentially...