Bloomberg
By Clementine Fletcher
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and U.K. governments will increase counter-terrorism efforts in Yemen and Somalia as they respond to a failed attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit.
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed to fund a police unit in Yemen to target terrorism and will support coastguard operations in the Arabian Peninsula nation, according to a an e-mailed statement from the two governments today. They will also back proposals at the United Nations Security Council for a larger peacekeeping force in Somalia, the statement said.
Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based branch claimed responsibility for the Dec. 25 attack in which Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight with 278 passengers on board.
The U.S. is at war with “a far-reaching network of violence and hatred,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address yesterday, vowing to defend the nation.
Obama said Abdulmutallab was trained and equipped in Yemen by an al-Qaeda affiliate. Obama blamed the group for earlier attacks on Yemeni government offices and hotels, including a 2008 attack on the U.S. embassy that killed one American.
Obama said he’s working with countries across Africa, Asia and Europe to disrupt terrorist financing and recruiting.
Brown will discuss the threat posed by terrorists operating out of Yemen and Somalia at the next European Union Council meeting, and has asked for the topic to be added to the agenda for the January EU General Affairs Council, the statement said.
Brown is organizing an international meeting in London on Jan. 28 to discuss how to counter radicalization in Yemen, his office said on Jan. 1.
Source: Bloomberg