Saudi Arabia resumes airstrikes in Yemen

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8. A rival caliphate emerges?

IT HAS been a rough decade for al-Qaeda. America and its regional allies assassinated its top leaders from Yemen to Iraq and made it harder for the group’s branches to communicate with a central leadership. In 2011 America killed Bin Laden, its chief. Since Islamic State (IS) emerged a year later it has outflanked al-Qaeda, attracting more foreign fighters, cash and headlines. But one branch is an exception. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, is on the up. In the past month or so, it has widened the territory under its control, including a port and an airport.

Today’s war in Yemen between the Houthi rebels and government backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is helping AQAP. It expanded after the ousting of President Abdullah Ali Saleh in 2012, only to be pushed back by a subsequent army offensive. But the government’s gains have now been reversed. On April 2nd AQAP freed members of its group from a prison. It took Mukalla, a port on the Gulf of Aden, and its nearby airport. American drone attacks, that previously kept AQAP on the back foot, have almost stopped since the Americans pulled out their intelligence-gathering special forces in the past few weeks.

http://www.economist.com/news/21649424-jihadists-gain-dangerous-ground-yemen-rival-caliphate-emerges