Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Yemen fights Al-Qa'eda Update III

Or maybe this one should be titled "Al-Qa'eda fights Yemen."  A British diplomat's convoy was attacked, and another attack killed a French oil worker.  This is all bad news for Yemen.  According to the Yemen Times, the tourist industry there has lost about $10 billion.  Yemen has some beautiful countryside, and several areas on the United Nations World Heritage list, but it's hard to get tourists to visit them when they could be killed by al-Qa'eda militants.

It's really a shame.  Yemen is the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, because they don't have huge oil reserves like most of the other nations.  They also get African refugees, and their waters are part of the area where you hear about pirates off the coast of Africa.  It's because of all of this that al-Qa'eda has managed to get a major foothold here.  The US is sending money and training to the Yemeni troops, but more needs to be done.  The country has enough political problems because of the tribes; it can't handle terrorism too.

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