By Andrew Schofield, Special Projects Editor -

Until Christmas Day, Yemen was a small, poor, and politically fragmented Arab nation in the eyes of most. But an attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit, Michigan, has placed Yemen at the forefront of the global fight against terrorism as considerable evidence points to the fact that Abdulmutallab acted with substantial aid from the Yemeni Al Qaeda cell. The latest attempt of terrorism only demonstrates a long developing problem in the country of Yemen: the increasing power of Al Qaeda throughout the country.

Abdulmutallab’s attempt, however, is not the first act of terrorism that can be traced back to the country’s Al Qaeda cell. In 2000, Al Qaeda orchestrated one of its most significant attacks at the time, the bombing of American destroyer USS Cole, in the port city of Aden, Yemen. In addition, the Yemeni cell has focused on bombing Yemeni government facilities and hotels known for their Western clientele.

But more recently, Al Qaeda has increased its efforts in Yemen in large part due to the influx of terrorists in Yemen. According to Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, nearly 2,000 Yemenis who fought for Al Qaeda in Iraq are returning to Yemen to help the cause there. Many have been released from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba or have escaped from Yemeni prisons. For example, in 2006, four high-profile terrorists escaped from a maximum-security including Nasser al-Wuhayshi and Qassim al-Raimi who would eventually become the leader of the Al Qaeda cell in Yemen and its military commander respectively. Although the core in Yemen remains small, its operations have become more sophisticated with the merging of the branch with the Saudi Al Qaeda branch.

In 2004, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born, English speaking Internet imam of Al Qaeda returned to Yemen after prison time on security charges. Although American intelligence officials do not believe he holds much power, most are convinced that he provides a vital link between prospective recruits like Abdulmutallab and Al Qaeda. There is also increasing evidence of a connection between al-Awlaki and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in November. Furthermore, he provides Al Qaeda with protection by the powerful Yemeni tribe, the Awlakis. In Yemen, most tribal codes compel the tribe to provide assistance to a member and his colleagues, or in this case, al-Awlaki and Al Qaeda.

Yemen’s history of instability and chaos only aids the terrorist operations of Al Qaeda. Up until 1990, the present-day Yemen was divided into North Yemen, or what was part of the old Ottoman Empire, and South Yemen, the former British colony. After the unification, in 1994, civil war broke out as southern secessionists established the Democratic Republic of Yemen. Although the secession was quickly defeated, the chaos in Yemen continues.

Al Qaeda’s resurgence in Yemen comes in a particularly tumultuous time as President Ali Abdullah Saleh has recently increased efforts to combat Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels. Against these rebels to the north, Mr. Saleh has encouraged jihadists and radical Sunni groups to fight the Houthi, which appears to be feeding support for Al Qaeda according to some analysts. In addition, Mr. Saleh’s second priority appears to be quashing a secessionist movement in the south. As Abdullah al-Faqih, a political scientist at Yemen’s Sana University told the New York Times, “President Saleh’s first priority is to stay in power. Two, at this point, is the war in the north. Three is the south. And sometimes Al Qaeda doesn’t even make the list at all — it drops from the agenda.”

Compounded the problem that the Yemeni government appears to be distracted, the terrorist cells appear to be taking refuge in the rugged tribal lands of Yemen – lands that do not have much government supervision much like those of Pakistan. Furthermore, Yemen is the poorest Arabian country with 70 percent of its GDP coming from oil reserves that are expected to be depleted within the next decade.

Despite their focus in Afghanistan, the situation in Yemen has the full attention of the United States government. President Barack Obama has pledged to make the strengthening of his government’s relationship with Yemen and President Saleh a priority. United States Special Forces have been deployed to Yemen to teach and train Yemeni forces on counterterrorism techniques and the United States has begun sharing intelligence with the Yemeni government. Connecticut Senator Joe Liberman has pushed for increased efforts to combat Al Qaeda in Yemen and claimed that a government official in the Yemeni capital told him, “Iraq was yesterday’s war, Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”