and there are these reports the u.s. not only left and fled the area but they left about $500 million worth of military equipment there that these shiite rebels have maybe aqap has, maybe some other terrorist groups have right now. your reaction to what s going on? well it s all obviously very very concerning. the houthis are on the verge of taking aden the second largest city in yemen, that risks plunging the country into a full-blown civil war. and i think al qaeda in yemen and isis are going to be the big winners here. they ll be able to exploit this civil war to their own advantage. they re going to be able to exploit anger amongst sunni tribals who are infuriated by this houthi takeover of sanaa and parts of south of the country to get a recruitment windfall. this will all help al qaeda build up its position further
i think we re already there. there s been fierce fighting in the central parts of yemen, in the province between these two groups. and this is all really playing to the advantage of aqap al qaeda s affiliate in yemen. it s getting a recruitment windfall from june any tribals. been able to expand its operations throughout the country. it now has more resources than anytime before. this has been the most active al qaeda affiliate when it comes to launching clocks against the united states. it has more resource to do that than ever before. this is a group that wants to blow an american airliner out of the sky. they ve been making sophisticated devices. this is of huge concern to washington, d.c. right now for all of our security. yeah. they re saying it may be teetering towards civil war. certainly does look like civil war already. looks like another syria in the
competition inside yemen. i think there is likely to be oneupmanship between these two groups. that puts even more onus on al qaeda in yemen to carry out a spectacular attack against the united states. they have been trying to do this for the last several years but because they are now feel this pressure from isis i think bomb makers will put this into overdrive in terms of building increasingly sophisticated devices that they are trying to get on western passenger jets. it s a very worrying situation in yemen indeed. al qaeda has more space to operate, has had a recruitment windfall from sunni tribals who were infuriated by this houthi takeover in areas to the south, sunni heartlands. what do you do about it? you are now pulling out the u.s. whatever personnel it did have on the ground shut down the embassy. what kind of power do you have to assert u.s. interest in that country? let s face it, the u.s. is