WASHINGTON, Jan 27, (Agencies): President Barack Obama approved secret joint US military and intelligence operations with Yemeni troops that began six weeks ago and killed six regional al-Qaeda leaders, The Washington Post reported.
Obama approved a Dec 24 strike against a compound where a US citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was believed to be meeting with regional al-Qaeda leaders, the newspaper said in its Wednesday editions.
He was not the target and was not killed but since has been added to a short list of US citizens to be killed or captured by the US military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command, military officials told the Post.
The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons, the paper said.
The United States is also sharing highly sensitive intelligence with Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, three-dimensional terrain maps and analysis of the al-Qaeda network, the Post said.

“We are very pleased with the direction this is going,” a senior administration official was quoted as saying about the cooperation with Yemen.
A Yemeni official was quoted as saying the two countries
maintained a “steadfast cooperation in combating AQAP (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), but there are clear limits to the US involvement on the ground. Information sharing has been a key in carrying out recent successful counterterrorism operations.”
In a newly built joint operations center, the American advisers are acting as intermediaries between Yemeni forces and US military and intelligence officers in the United States to collect and analyze intelligence, the Post said.
US Special Operations forces and intelligence agencies have worked closely with Yemeni counterterrorism forces to target the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula over the last two months, US officials have told Reuters.
But the officials declined to provide details about US cooperation or to say whether US aircraft or cruise missiles have been used. US forces have not taken part directly in the operations, they said.

Chased
Saudi deputy defence minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said on Wednesday that Yemeni Shiite rebels have been chased out of the kingdom and did not withdraw of their own accord as they claim.
“They did not withdraw. They have been forced out,” he said at a press briefing near the town of Khouba in Jazan region near the border with Yemen, scene of on-off fighting with the rebels since early November.
The leader of the Shiite rebels, known also as Huthis, had announced on Monday the voluntary withdrawal of his fighters from positions occupied within Saudi Arabia.
Prince Khaled demanded, however, the withdrawal of snipers he said were infiltrating the mountainous borders “from time to another” and urged the Yemeni army, engaged in sporadic fighting with the rebels, to take control of the borders.
“If they are serious, they have to withdraw completely, including snipers,” Prince Khaled said.
“If they (snipers) withdraw, and if they return our six missing (soldiers), and if we become sure that Yemeni armed forces are stationed along the borders... these three steps would prove their good intentions,” he said.

He said that 109 Saudi soldiers were killed in the fighting, including seven “in the last several days,” adding that Riyadh believes that six soldiers are held by the rebels, but can only confirm that four were held captive.
Saudi soldiers at the border area of Jebel al-Doud told AFP that they saw Huthi infiltrators on Tuesday night.
Major General Saeed al-Ghamedi, brigadier commander for Saudi paratroopers at Jebel al-Doud, told AFP that they were in the “final phase of securing the area.”
“By the end of this phase. The war is done,” he added.
“The Huthi forces said they were withdrawing. It is not true. We destroyed them. We pulverised them,” he boasted.
Sounds of gunfire and explosions could be still heard on the border west of Khouba on Wednesday afternoon.

Centre
Yemen will begin building an $11 million rehabilitation centre for returning Guantanamo detainees in three months when it expects to receive funding from the United States, a government official said on Wednesday.
There are 91 Yemeni detainees left in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Washington suspended transfers to Yemen this month because of a deteriorating security situation in the country, in the throes of a crackdown on a resurgent al-Qaeda.
Foreign ministers of Western powers, Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey were meeting in London on Wednesday to discuss ways to stabilise Yemen as it grapples with al-Qaeda, a northern Shi’ite revolt and southern separatism.
“Setting up the centre will require $11 million and the US side has announced it is prepared to provide the entire sum,” the official said, declining to be named.
Maritime traffic in the Gulf of Aden could tempt al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to carry out spectacular attacks on shipping or hijackings for ransom, experts and diplomats say.
A message posted on an Islamist website in January warned the United States that “we have attacked you on land and in the air ... and soon we will attack in the sea.”
“Al-Qaeda troops, especially those in the Arabian Peninsula, have expertise in this area,” added the threat, which was translated by the American research institute The Middle East Media Research Institute.

The message referred to a daring attack by an explosives-laden small boat against the USS Cole destroyer in Aden October 2000 that killed 17 sailors and began a wave of suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States.
AQAP claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to bring down an airliner as it approached the US city of Detroit on Christmas Day.
Officials and diplomats in Sanaa are worried, as the Yemeni coast guard’s surveillance and protection capabilities are very limited.
“We are in need of means to control the coast of the country, not just against al-Qaeda, but also to combat drug smugglers,” said Yemen’s head of central security, General Yahya Saleh.
Much of the coast is unmonitored, said Yahya, who is the nephew of President Ali Abdullah Sadeh.