Yemen: After being driven out of occupied territories Al Qaeda vows to return to mountains and caves

An article by a Yemen-based journalist relays reports from an Al Qaeda leader in Abyan province who claims Al Qaeda has decided that it is too costly in terms of money spent on providing services to occupy cities and large swathes of territory. However, this expenditure no doubt helped them win over the populace in cities they controlled. Providing services was something the central government did not do well.

The leader said that the group used to spend in the city of Jaar 300,000 U.S. each month and in the whole of Abyan province 2 million U.S. dollars per month. One wonders where they were able to get the money. In any event it seems clear that the militants were simply unable to defend themselves against the Yemen armed forces combined with U.S. drones and supervision. They were bound to eventually lose the territory they had occupied.

The militants say that all their funds now can be directed to guerrilla war and terrorist attacks. Several cities were held by the militants for a year and a half..One wonders if the militants will not also mingle in with the general population in cities and plan terrorist attacks against Yemeni security forces and any American Special Forces they discover. For more see the full article.