FBI director Mueller visits Yemen

In a sign that the U.S. is becoming more deeply involved in the Yemen civil strife FBI director Robert Mueller visited the capital yesterday. The government took the opportunity to announce that an air strike had killed an important Al Qaeda leader who was involved in an attack on a French oil tanker. No doubt this was a U.S. drone strike but as usual Yemen does not admit such strikes. However U.S. sources say that the strike was carried out by a CIA operated drone.

During a meeting with the new president who was elected recently in a one person race Mueller pledged support for Yemen "with full force" . The original protesters for democracy have been unable to hold the former president Saleh or anyone else responsible for the deaths during the democracy protests. All were given immunity under the GCC brokered deal for the former president to step down.

A Yemen embassy spokesman in Washington said. "President Hadi emphasized that he is strongly committed to combating extremism and working with the U.S. to counter the mutual threat of terrorism." For more see this article.. The Yemeni armed forces along with some local tribes people opposed to a Qaeda or perhaps funded by the government have been trying to take back territory occupied by militants. The U.S. could very well be used by the Yemeni regime to fight forces opposed to the regime who are separatists rather than militants. Branding any group as militants is a sure fire way to gain U.S. support for eliminating them.