In The Battle To Defeat al-Qaida, Spotlight Falls On Yemen

A soldier from Yemen’s Central Security Force (CSF) guards a checkpoint on the southern edge of Zinjibar. (Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME)

Yemen’s defense minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt Tuesday, but at least a dozen security guards and civilians were killed in the bombing. The attack follows the killing Monday of al-Qaida’s number two commander in Yemen and it’s the latest round in the battle against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

American intelligence officials say that of all the regional al-Qaida groups, the Yemen-based one poses the most danger to the U.S. The group’s leaders were close to Osama bin Laden, and they remain dedicated to carrying out attacks on U.S. soil.

“They are reaching out to angry Muslims in the U.S. through the Internet to try to turn them into terrorists,” Time Magazine world editor Bobby Ghosh told Here & Now‘s Sacha Pfeiffer. “It’s the only group that still wants to do that.”

• Time Slideshow: The End Of al-Qaida
• Time World: 11 Years After 9/11 Jihad Is Local
• Time: The End Of al-Qaida (subscription)

Guest:

• Bobby Ghosh, Time Magazine, world editor