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Summary
The head of US Central Command on Friday said that the United States was working in close association with Yemeni intelligence sources to combat the growing presence of al-Qaeda in Yemen, following fears the troubled country is becoming a major training centre for militants were underlined when a Nigerian man tried to blow up a US jetliner en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.General David Petraeus was attending a military ceremony that signaled the end of the Multi-National Forces - Iraq designation to describe foreign troops in Iraq. The new designation is United States Forces - Iraq, reflecting the fact that the United States is practically the only foreign military force left after leading contingents from 32 countries throughout the Iraq war.The United States mission here will be changed, and the US forces here will be drawn down from the current 110,000 military personnel to below 50,000. The ceremony therefore is one of importance, not just to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coastguardsmen and civilians of the United States forces in Iraq, but also one of importance to our Iraqi partners and indeed to the Iraqi people as we continue to honour the elements of the security agreement between our two countries, he said, referring to a plan to see numbers more than halved by the end of the summer. All troops are scheduled to leave in 2011. Later at a news conference, Petraeus said the military was sharing intelligence with Yemeni intelligence in a bid to fight al Qaeda's influence in the Middle East's poorest country.Indeed there has been sharing of intelligence and information and so forth, two-way street, because the intelligence sources of Yemen are very, very good as well, and the operations that were carried out in December were very significant. In one case, forestalling an attack of four suicide bombers who were moving into Sana'a. Two training camps targeted and some senior leaders believed to have been killed or seriously injured as well. Certainly there were activities going on there, one of which resulted in the failed attack on the airliner, he said. US President Barack Obama's administration is trying to determine what US policy and personnel failures preceded the attempted bombing of a jetliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old passenger, was arrested on Christmas Day after he allegedly tried to bring down the Northwest Airlines flight, carrying 289 people. Petraeus then said he had always believed recently released British hostage Peter Moore, freed this week two-and-a-half years after his kidnapping in Iraq, spent at least part of his captivity in Iran. It is difficult to say what role the Revolutionary Guards Corp, and in particular, frankly, the Quds force element played in that. I am on the record as having said that our intelligence assessment is that he certainly spent part of the time at the very least in Iran, he said.Moore, a computer programmer, and four bodyguards, were kidnapped from inside the Iraqi Finance Ministry building in Baghdad. The bodies of three of the four bodyguards have since been handed over to British authorities, who believe the fourth is also dead. Britain's Guardian newspaper reported this week that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps led the kidnapping operation, and that Moore was seized because his computer work would have shown that large amounts of aid money flowing to Iraq were being diverted to Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq. The British Foreign Office said there was nothing to substantiate the report that Iran orchestrated the abduction. It also played down reports the hostages were taken to Iran.
