Yemen's offensive against al-Qaida
Updated on 05 January 2010
Yemen launches a major new offensive against al-Qaida militants, sending thousands of troops towards rebel strongholds. Jonathan Rugman reports.
An al-Qaida-linked group based in Yemen has claimed it trained and equipped Omar Abdulmutallab, the man charged with trying to bomb the Northwest Airlines plane bound for Detroit.
Today the authorities in Yemen said they had launched a major new offensive against al-Qaida.
But with tighter security in the capital, Sana'a, the US embassy has now reopened and the British and French missions have returned to work.
Jon Snow spoke to our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman who is in Yemen.
Jonathan Rugman said: "It's almost back to normal (in Yemen). The British embassy has reopened.
"But they're not allowing members of the public in on visa or consular visits and the American embassy has reopened as well, after assurances from the Yemenis that the two suspected al-Qaida figures who were killed yesterday were involved in the plot to attack the embassies.
"Therefore the threat level has gone down and the embassies can reopen in some shape or form.
"At the same time the Yemenis are saying today that thousands of their troops have been deployed across three provinces taking the fight to al-Qaida militants and that five suspects have been detained."
