Word: qaeda
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...Pakistan Border Dispute The Pakistani government warned the U.S. that it would use deadly force on American troops who crossed the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in search of Taliban and al-Qaeda members. The order came in response to a Sept. 3 raid carried out by American ground forces that killed more than a dozen civilians. Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, also accused U.S. forces of launching a second raid on Sept. 15, an allegation that was denied by Pakistani and U.S. military officials, who said the attack was a mistake made by an errant...
...brazen, sophisticated attack sparked fears in counterterrorism circles that al-Qaeda is gaining ground in Yemen, a key front in the Bush Administration's war on terror. A major purpose of the attack may have been to undermine Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih. Yemeni officials believe it may have come in retaliation for recent raids by Yemeni security forces against al-Qaeda in which senior militant Hamza al-Quaiti was killed. Militants had also threatened more attacks if Yemeni authorities fail to free detainees. Says Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee: "Al-Qaeda and the security forces are in a serious confrontation...
...Yemeni source familiar with the initial government intelligence report on the incident told TIME that suspected militants tied to al-Qaeda were responsible and that it involved substantial weaponry, ample funding and elaborate planning. Officials believe the timing of the 9:15 a.m. attack was designed to catch security personnel off guard after their rising early for the predawn sohour meal before beginning the day's Ramadan fast. In an apparent effort to enter the embassy compound without firing a shot, the terrorists, officials believe, pulled up to the first perimeter checkpoint in a vehicle, impersonating uniformed Yemeni personnel...
...officials, though, complain that while Yemen's government is a valuable ally against al-Qaeda, it has sometimes been too lax - for example, by sentencing hardened militants to short prison terms and freeing repatriated Guantánamo Bay detainees. Last May, an appeals court reduced from five to three years the prison sentence for Saleh al-Ammari, the Yemeni man who opened fire on the U.S. embassy in Sana'a in 2006. Still, U.S. officials acknowledge that the government faces a formidable challenge. The country is home to a large number of veterans of the anti-Soviet jihads in Afghanistan...
...Yemen is also the site of one of al-Qaeda's first, albeit little-known, international operations: an attack on two hotels in the port of Aden in 1992 that was aimed at U.S. troops bound for Somalia. Two people died, but neither was American. Better known was the group's strike in 2000 on the U.S.S. Cole in Aden's harbor, killing 17 U.S. servicemen. Three months before 9/11, Yemeni authorities arrested eight people in a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Sana'a. And only last March, there was a failed mortar attack on the embassy compound...