American team plans training role for Yemen troops

WASHINGTON -- A team of U.S. military officers is in Yemen laying plans to press the anti-terrorism war by training local troops to fight al-Qaida who may be hiding there.

"Our mission is to destroy terrorism around the world," spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Tuesday at the Pentagon. "We will equip and train and help friendly nations who are seeking to confront domestic terrorist threats."

Yemeni officials have said they would like the United States to train 2,000 local military personnel. They also want boats, other equipment and help building a naval training facility in Aden, site of the deadly October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, to bolster security along the country's 1,500-mile coastline.

With the war against the al-Qaida in Afghanistan entering its sixth month, the CIA has quietly begun work to arm and train the counterterror teams and intelligence services of an unknown number of U.S. allies.

Other operations

The Pentagon also is looking at military programs for a number of countries, but Yemen is only the third publicly acknowledged. The others are the Philippines, where advisers are deployed, and Georgia, where trainers are planned.

Clarke declined to compare plans for Yemen with the operation started last month in the Philippines, saying "details are still being worked out" by the team of officers from U.S. Central Command, the division of the military that handles that is running the war in Afghanistan.

But another official said that an initial training and equipment program in Yemen could be expanded to one of U.S. military advisers.

If so, that could put U.S. troops more directly into the Yemeni fight, observing and advising local forces on their operations against terrorists.

Some 600 Americans, including about 160 special forces troops, are in the Philippines advising local soldiers who are fighting Abu Sayyaf Muslim, a radical group with ties to al-Qaida.

Plans for the former Soviet republic of Georgia tentatively call for 150 Americans in a training role and for some equipment.

The United States already has sent some helicopters to help Georgian troops with transport.