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U.S. helping Yemen fight al Qaeda, against talks

by Reuters
Monday, 11 October 2010 07:45 GMT

* U.S. envoy rejects any dialogue with al Qaeda

* Al Qaeda plans new fighting force

* Blasts kill one person in Aden

(Adds al Qaeda message, Aden blasts, paragraphs 6-12)

SANAA, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The United States is helping Yemen in its fight against al Qaeda but would not support negotiations with the militants, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador said on Monday.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh said earlier this year that he would engage in dialogue with al Qaeda's regional wing if the militant group laid down its arms.

"From our side, we don't think there is a possibility to change their ideas or to stop their operations," Gerald Feierstein said at a news conference in Sanaa.

The United States stepped up its operations against al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing after a failed bomb attempt on a Detroit-bound plane in December. The group has responded by stepping up attacks.

A missile was fired at a British diplomat's car in Sanaa on Monday, roughly six months after an al Qaeda suicide bomber tried to kill the British ambassador.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said in a message posted on the Internet on Monday that it planned to launch a new fighting force.

"Aden-Abyan Army will be the line of defence of the Muslim nation and its religion, the liberation of its sanctities and the cleansing of its territories from the Crusaders (Westerners) and their apostate agents," a speaker, identified as the group's military commander Qasim al-Rimi, said in an audio recording.

But Rimi said mass recruitment would have to wait.

"This Army is in its initial stages ... we tell brothers who have asked to join us from the (Arabian) Peninsula and outside ... that we cannot accommodate you at this stage," Rimi said.

Rimi did not give details about the planned force, which has a name similar to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, a militant group which was active in southern Yemen, mostly in the late 1990s.

BLASTS IN ADEN

In the southern port of Aden, two blasts killed one person and injured at least five bystanders at a sport club late on Monday, a local official and witnesses told Reuters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions.

Besides the resurgent al Qaeda wing, Yemen's government faces increasing separatist unrest in the south, and sporadic clashes with Shi'ite rebels in the north.

In Sanaa, Feierstein said Washington had given $300 million in aid to Yemen so far this year and that next year the same amount would be provided.

Half of that sum would be spent on supporting the Yemeni economy, while the other half would go to security, he said.

Asked if the United States had carried our air strikes on militant targets on Yemeni territory, Feierstein said: "The United States is committed to build up Yemen's military and security capabilities and is committed to helping the Yemeni government overcome al Qaeda with the aim of removing the threats posed by the group." The Yemeni foreign minister has been quoted as confirming that the United States had carried out air strikes in Yemen.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa and Mohammed Mokhashaf in Aden; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Firouz Sedarat; editing by Noah Barkin)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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