During a visit to Sanaa earlier this year, Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said: "Iraq was yesterday's war. Afghanistan is today's war. If we don't act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow's war."
Yemen has long been a haven for Islamic jihadists, and such factors as tribal culture, poverty and corruption have helped create a fertile ground for extremism.
Yemen has been struggling with instability. Abductions of foreigners and bombings are common. And there have been reports of collusion between separatists in the south and al-Qaida.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy operations chief of al-Qaida, said last month the U.S. military forces had already been involved in operations in Yemen and he urged religious leaders to mount a jihad, or holy war against the U.S.
He mentioned U.S. missile attacks in southern Yemen in the Gulf of Arden last December, in which 43 al-Qaida members and 42 civilians were killed.
In January, over 100 religious leaders gathered in Sanaa, declaring that they would start a jihad if there was a foreign military invasion.
On May 24, Yemeni tribes condemned the U.S. for its air raid on Marib, as well as bombings of oil pipelines between May 25 and June 12.
A former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden predicted on Friday that a war between the Yemeni government and al-Qaida troops may break out and the U.S. would intervene militarily when it is deemed necessary.
Al-Qaida's rise in the south of Yemen has aroused deep concerns in the U.S. However, Washington's high-profile military involvement would only backfire, as it is likely to have a negative impact on the political situation in the country and further stoke up anti-U.S. sentiment, with more extremists swarming to Yemen to join a jihad against the U.S., analysts say.
