The U.S. Military said that it will step up military assistance to the Sana'a's regime out of concern that Al-Qaeda may seek to exploit the volatile situation in the strategically important nation.
The assistance is aimed to carry out a new training program with Yemen's counterterrorism unit so it can move against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP.
According to an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details are still being worked out, the new program will cost about $75 million, and the goal is to create a national counter-terror unit that will be better able and equipped to travel out to tribal regions and ferret out insurgents hiding there.
The new training program would expand U.S. military assistance to Yemen, where AQAP has planned and launched several attack against the U.S., including the attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day of 2009, and the failed mail bomb plot involving cargo planes last summer.
The $75-million plan calls for doubling the size of the 300-member Yemeni anti-terror force and reorienting its mission.
Officials believe the new program will provide a critical step toward getting at militants in safe havens, particularly in the Abyan and Shabwa provinces.
Early this month, Yemen's Air Force received four Bell Helicopter utility aircrafts from the U.S. military under its 1206 program. The aircraft were upgraded Huey II helicopters. Spares and associated tools were also delivered.