According to the Business Insider - American-based online news site with a focus on financial, media, tech, and other industry verticals - Yemeni wannabe Jihadists would be using Turkey and a recent relaxation in traveling regulations to join offshoots of al-Qaeda in Syria.
Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi ratified and enacted this week a bilateral agreement with Turkey which provisions for a lifting of all visa traveling regulations. The rapprochement in between Ankara and Sana'a has been significantly gaining momentum in recent months, with Turkey acting more than ever a tactical ally and supporter in the region.
Fears of a terror-bridge in the region via Turkey to Syria were first raised by local Yemeni journalist, Nasser Arrabiye when he wrote "more than 5000 young people recruited by Islamist leaders and financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia were transported from Aden to Istanbul over the last four months;" information he said security sources in the airport of Aden volunteered.
It is important to note that Yemen has supported Jihadists in the past, enabling and facilitating their travel out of Yemen to foreign shores where the authorities knew they would be enrolled in local militias. When the United States declared a war by proxy on Moscow in the 80s,through its Mujaheedens, thousands of Yemeni militants were allowed to travel out of Yemen, through Europe, onto Pakistan and then Afghanistan to join a multi-national Jihadist military effort against the Soviet Union.
History will reveal that it is this American-funded, American-made and trained militia which will give birth to one of the most dangerous terror organizations the world has come across so far, al-Qaeda.
The idea young Yemeni men - most of whom poor, uneducated and disillusioned - are being sent to train alongside hardened terror militants in Syria is said to be troubling many security officials in Washington, especially since those young men will at one point return to their homeland, well-trained into the art of terror.
As Doug Pologne of Middle East Insight puts it "these guys gain experience which is brought back home, as well as put to use in other locations later on."
Added to that an already "alive" terror home-front and analysts are ringing the alarm bells, warning of the dire consequences a future influx of Jihadists could have on Yemen.
Marcy Kreiter, a political security analyst based in Dubai told the Yemen Post on Wednesday that while she did not believe Turkey and Yemen recent abandon of visa regulations could be blame since it came as part of a bilateral effort to strengthen commercial and political ties between both nations, one needed to exercise some control over Syria's borders, while working on a national campaign in Yemen to prevent young men to enroll in the first place.
"It would be senseless to impose travel restrictions on young men now that the agreement has been ratified; it would be counter-productive and thwart Yemen economic recovery. That being said, Yemen transition government should work on an awareness campaign on a national level to prevent wannabe Jihadits from leaving. Moreover, The international community should work on controlling the influx of militants into Syria on the ground by establishing tighter border control."
Who is promoting Jihad?
While no call for Jihad was sent out yet to the Muslim world, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been hard at work over recent months, financing and encouraging local clerics to establish the Islam's rightful claims against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his goons.
And while Riyadh and Doha politically tends to distance themselves from a direct call for war on Syria, both governments have been ferociously pushing their "powerful clergy" onto the ring, urging Imams to advocate the "defense of the Muslim Ummah" - community - in Syria.
In Yemen, Salafis have aligned themselves with Saudi Arabia's guidelines, calling on their congregations to step up and fight "the Syrian evil."
Sheikh Abdel-Majeed al-Zindani, a prominent Yemeni cleric, powerful tribal leader and Head of the Salafis faction within al-Islah - Yemen semi-ruling political party - is said to have called for Jihad in Syria, encouraging men to enroll.
Figuring on America's most wanted list, Sheikh Zindani was the focus of a heated debate this week in between U.S Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein and al-Islah leaders as, the former criticized the Sheikh participation in Yemen coming National Dialogue Conference, arguing that since the man was after all a wanted terror militant he should refrain from partaking in the nation' first attempt to smooth out all political differences.
As often when dealing with terror, countries should look to its prevent radicalization by promoting social integration. With 40% of its population leaving the poverty line, Yemen has become a recruiting gold mine for al-Qaeda as more and more young men are willing to do the unthinkable if it means providing for their family.
Poverty more than ideology should be fought in Yemen, as it is the former terror groups are using to ensnare young minds, giving them a sense of purpose and belonging.
The fact that Yemenis are traveling to Syria through Turkey to join al-Qaeda is really underscoring the global ramification the terror group now gained, making the need for a global counter-terror strategy somewhat of an understatement.
cheat on my husband
online catch a cheater