Washington, Sept 17 (ANI): The US has significantly increased the frequency of drone attacks and other air strikes against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen in recent months amid rising concern about political collapse there.
Some of the strikes, carried out by the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have been focused in the southern part of the country, where insurgent forces have for the first time conquered and held territory as the Yemeni government continues to struggle against increasing opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule, the Washington Post reports.
Although the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has the authorization to launch drone strikes at its will in Pakistan, it is not so in the case of Yemen and needs approval from the White House.
"The United States does not view our authority to use military force against al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to 'hot' battlefields like Afghanistan. We reserve the right to take unilateral action if or when other governments are unwilling or unable to take the necessary actions themselves," the paper quoted White House counterterror chief John Brennan, as saying.
"That does not mean we can use military force whenever we want, wherever we want," Brennan said. "International legal principles, including respect for a state's sovereignty and the laws of war, impose important constraints on our ability to act unilaterally - and on the way in which we can use force - in foreign territories," he added.
Reports suggest that Washington conducted attacks Somalia on Thursday, near the southern port city of Kismayo. lthough several unconfirmed strikes each week have been reported by local media in Yemen and Somalia, the administration has made no public acknowledgment of it.
The administration believes that AQAP has recruited at least a portion of the main insurgent group in Somalia, al-Shabab, to its anti-Western cause.
Saleh has been a close counterterrorism ally of the US, and Yemen's political turmoil has not affected that cooperation, Brennan added. (ANI)
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