Analysis: “Rebels and AQAP Present Thorny Dilemma”

In a Policy Watch piece for the Washington Center for Near East Policy, Michael Knights writes that “the growing nexus between antigovernment rebels and AQAP presents a thorny dilemma for Washington.” Knights notes that the government crackdown in Yemen has prompted previously disconnected opposition factions to work together, drawing “even more Islamists into the armed opposition” in the South. Knights argues that U.S. counter-terrorism efforts aimed at al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula risk a conflation of American actions with “the government’s brutal counteroffensives.”

Meanwhile, a study released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point posits that the killing of al-Awlaki is unlikely to affect AQAP’s actions, although “a more accountable and transparent Yemeni government presents a serious strategic challenge to the group’s long-term survival.”