Antiterror allies: US and Yemen test the limits

But, Haykel goes on to say, the result will likely lead to more terrorist attacks against the oil industry in Yemen, the country's main source of income.

"Al Qaeda has done this by attacking the French oil tanker [in October]," he says. "They will strike where it harms the most - at the shipping and oil industry."

Originally, about 100 US Special Forces soldiers were in Yemen. Now, about two dozen remain. In nearby Djibouti there are another 800 Special Forces, plus the CIA unit that operates the Predator drones used in the recent missile attack.

But training the Yemeni forces has not been easy. Although nearly every male above 13 years of age owns an AK47, Yemen isn't known for its military prowess. Ahmed Saleh, the special forces leader and son of President Saleh, has apparently been groomed by his father in the same vein as Saddam Hussein's sons.

Ahmed was first made a member of parliament, where he was ineffective, then sent to a military academy in Jordan, where he flunked out, according to a former US government official with broad experience in the region.

But Ahmed had met Jordan's King Abdullah and was impressed with his special forces' capabilities. When he returned home, the former US official says, Ahmed asked his father to give him his own special forces unit. His father gave him the unit but not money or equipment.

"Everybody called it the hollow brigade," says the former official.

After US troops spent some time and money training the Yemeni unit, they sent it on a mission to capture Mr. al-Harithi, who was being sheltered in the Marib region. But al-Harithi and his followers were able to ward off the Yemeni forces, and killed 18 of them in the process.

A Western diplomat says that happened because of the way the Yemeni special forces handled the operation - including the use of jet that broke the sound barrier over the village just as the operation began. Al-Harithi and his comrades got away.

So when the CIA and US Special Forces received intelligence on where al-Harithi was located earlier this month, they decided to do the job themselves, according to the Western diplomat.

But that incident - and the fact that the US publicized its success - has put Yemen's government and the two dozen or so US soldiers remaining in Yemen, at heightened risk of reprisals.

"The US rush to announce the Nov. 3 strike, apparently without informing the Yemen government in advance, was not well calculated," says Charles Dunbar, a professor of international relations at Simmons College in Boston and US Ambassador to Yemen during the Gulf War. "The economic situation in Yemen is grim, and it will not be hard for those opposed to the cooperation to inflame the sentiments of people whose pocketbooks are empty."

Yemen is bracing for more terrorist attacks. In fact, a senior Yemeni official's home was hit by a grenade last Tuesday, causing serious damage, but no deaths.

"I was very optimistic when the US first said they would help Yemen build its security forces and coast guard," says Yemeni Brig. Gen. Yahya al-Mutawakel. But "the result is not satisfactory. We have not yet made the Americans understand that they are here to help us fight for ourselves."

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