Increased pressure leads to Yemeni takedown of top Al Qaeda brass

Following Umar Abdulmutallab’s failed mid-air attack on Christmas day, the focus is on Yemen, the country in which the would-be “underwear bomber” studied and spent unaccounted-for time.

The Saudi Gazette and Reuters report that Yemeni security forces have killed Abdullah Mehdar, a top member of Al-Qaeda in Shabwa province believed to be behind Abdulmutallab’s attempted attack.

Mehdar is also believed to be behind the recent threats to the U.S. embassy which prompted the U.S. and U.K. embassies in Yemen to shut their doors on January 3.

While Yemen has long been seen as a safe haven for terrorists (see my previous posts here), the increased pressure from both internal and international sources on Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has prompted him to take a tough stance against the same Islamic extremist constituency that he once courted “for political support.”

More from Reuters: “The West and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will take advantage of Yemen’s instability to spread its operations to the neighboring kingdom, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and beyond. Yemen itself produces a small amount of oil.”