America's CIA believes that Al Qaeda terror network in Yemen poses a more serious threat to the US than those in its traditional stronghold of Afghanistan and Pakistan, a media report said on Wednesday.
A fresh assessment of Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen has helped prompt the Obama administration officials to call for an escalation of US operations there — including a proposal to add armed CIA drones to a clandestine campaign of US military strikes, the Washington Post reported quoting unnamed US officials.
This is for the first time in recent years that the CIA has come out with the assessment that Al Qaeda in Yemen is more dangerous than those in Pakistan, where most of its top leadership including Osama bin Laden is believed to have been based.
"We are looking to draw on all of the capabilities at our disposal," a senior Obama administration official was quoted as saying by the Washington Post.
The official described plans for "a ramp-up over a period of months." The officials told the Washington Post that analysts continue to see Al Qaeda and its allies in the tribal areas of Pakistan as supremely dangerous adversaries.
"The officials insisted there would be no letup in their pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other senior figures thought to be hiding in Pakistan," the daily said.
It is also that because Al Qaeda has been decimated by Predator drone strikes in Pakistan that the franchise in Yemen has emerged as a more potent threat, The Post said.
"We see Al Qaeda as having suffered major losses, unable to replenish ranks and recover at a pace that would keep them on offence," a senior US official familiar with the CIA's assessments was quoted as saying.
The daily reported that CIA has roughly 10 times more people and resources in Pakistan than it does in Yemen. There is no plan to scale back in Pakistan, but officials said the gap is expected to shrink," it said.