THE TELEGRAPH: Senior Washington officials want to launch CIA drones over Yemen after judging the local branch of al-Qaeda the greatest single threat to the United States.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has come under increasing scrutiny since priming a former University College London student to try to bomb an American air-liner on Christmas Day.
CIA analysts now say the Yemen group is a "more urgent" threat to US security than the core al-Qaeda group based in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden's presumed whereabouts.
The Pakistan group had been badly damaged by Predator drone bomb strikes, one official told The Washington Post, while AQAP was "on an upswing".
"We see al-Qaeda as having suffered major losses, unable to replenish ranks and recover at a pace that would keep them on offence," the official said.
"The relative concern ratios are changing. We're more concerned now about AQAP than we were before."
Al-Qaeda has presented a continuous threat in Yemen since 2000 and before. >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Wednesday, August 25, 2010
