Yemen asks Washington for drones to fight al-Qaeda

Yemeni soldiers stand guard outside al-Saleh mosque in Sanaa Yemen has asked the United States to supply it with drones to help it fight an al-Qaeda threat that recently forced Western countries to temporarily close diplomatic missions in Sanaa, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said on Thursday
Yemeni state news agency Saba quoted Hadi as telling police cadets that 40 suspected al-Qaeda militants had been killed in recent counter-terrorism operations as he vowed to keep fighting the Islamists until they laid down their weapons.
Opposition members and human rights activists have criticised the Yemeni government for allowing the US to carry out drone attacks on its soil. Hadi on Thursday dismissed the criticism, saying Yemen had allowed the United States to undertake such operations because his country did not possess such technology to carry out "these precise military missions".
The Yemeni leader defended the use of drone strikes, saying they were more accurate than other methods. He said that a 2009 strike that killed scores of Yemeni civilians in Abyan province resulted from a cruise missile and not a drone.
"I have discussed the issue of helping us acquire this technology with the US administration," Saba quoted Hadi as saying, adding that the Yemeni army was capable of using drones.
The Yemeni army, with US backing, last year drove al-Qaeda militants and their allies from strongholds they seized during months of turmoil against Saleh's rule.
But the insurgents have since regrouped and launched several attacks on government officials and oil installations.
"We will pursue them until they seek peace, give up their weapons and return to their senses as Yemeni citizens and not as enemies of Yemen, and kick out the foreigners who carry out these military attacks with them," he said.
Hadi hailed the successes of recent operations against al-Qaeda, saying they resulted in “killing 40 of militants, exposing many terrorist cells and thwarting many attacks by car bombs.”
On Tuesday the US reopened its embassy in Yemen, two weeks after it closed for fear of an al-Qaeda attack.
Sanaa was one of 19 US consulates and embassies in the Muslim world that were shut on August 4 amid what American officials said was a threat of an imminent attack.
The closures affected virtually all of the Arab world and were eventually extended to include parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
The other missions had already re-opened, but Yemen -- the home base of the militant faction al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- was seen as the epicenter of the threat.
Yemeni authorities have since claimed to have thwarted the alleged plot, and there have been several reports of US drone strikes killing suspected militants.