Yemen

The House and Senate intelligence committees announced plans Wednesday to draft new laws against leaks of classified information, adding to an uproar on Capitol Hill over a series of recent stories that revealed details of terrorism threats and CIA programs. Citing "the accelerating pace of such disclosures," the two committees said in a joint statement that they planned to "act immediately" by bolstering legal restrictions and putting new pressure on the Obama administration to stanch the flow of secrets.

There is little doubt among U.S. intelligence officials that Kaid and Nabil al-Dhahab — brothers who reportedly survived a U.S. airstrike in Yemen on Memorial Day — are associated with the al-Qaeda insurgency in that country. Less clear is the extent to which they are plotting against the United States. "It's still an open question," a U.S. counterterrorism official said. The siblings were related by marriage to Anwar al-Awlaki , an al-Qaeda operative killed in September, but they have not been connectedto a major plot.

Aden, Yemen — Across the vast, rugged terrain of southern Yemen, an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes is stirring increasing sympathy for al-Qaeda-linked militants and driving tribesmen to join a network linked to terrorist plots against the United States. After recent U.S. missile strikes, mostly from unmanned aircraft, the Yemeni government and the United States have reported that the attacks killed only suspected al-Qaeda members. But civilians have also died in the attacks, said tribal leaders, victims' relatives and human rights activists.

SANAA, YEMEN — With its suicide attack that killed at least 90 people and injured scores Monday, al-Qaeda's Yemen branch has expanded far outside its sphere of influence in the south, proving it can penetrate even the most sensitive military targets in the capital. The assault on troops during a parade rehearsal in the heart of Sanaa narrowly missed killing the defense minister and represented Yemen's most devastating terrorist attack in years. It occurred as militants linked to al-Qaeda defend newly seized territory in the south and confront head-on this Middle Eastern nation's U.S.-backed government in an intensifying guerrilla conflict.

I n this rugged northern valley ringed by pink-hued mountains, a conflict between Yemeni factions is siphoning away resources from a more significant war against al-Qaeda-linked militants in the country's restive south. And Hakma Abdallah and her 10 children are among its numerous victims. Home is a dark cave in the craggy hillside rising above their village. They sleep on dusty blankets on the hard earth, sharing the meager space with two other families. The houses below have been shattered by artillery and mortars, testament to the fierce battles that have erupted here.

The United States launched airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday that killed as many as seven militants, the second American missile attack in the country since the CIA and other spy agencies disrupted an al-Qaeda airline bomb plot , U.S. officials said. The strike came as new details surfaced about the foiling of the plot, including the disclosure that the operative who posed as a willing suicide bomber and later turned the device over to authorities was a British citizen, according to Western officials.

SANAA, Yemen — For al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, the volunteer seemed ideal. He was willing to die in a suicide operation , and he had travel papers that would allow him to board a U.S.-bound flight. It was a perfect dangle, in the parlance of spycraft, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took the bait. The group's bombmaker fitted the man with a new version of a nonmetallic "underwear bomb. " What he didn't know was that the would-be martyr was an agent run by Saudi Arabia.

THE RECOVERY of a sophisticated bomb that U.S. officials believe was intended to be used in a suicide attack against the United States has underlined the reality that the war against al-Qaeda is not yet over — and that it will not necessarily end, as President Obama suggested last week , in Afghanistan. Though many of the details of the latest plot have not been disclosed, officials say the bomb plot originated with al-Qaeda's robust organization in Yemen, called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

SANAA, Yemen — Armed militants linked to al-Qaeda stormed a Yemeni military base in a restive southern province before dawn Monday, killing at least 20 soldiers and capturing more than two dozen others, according to Yemeni military officials. The assault occurred hours after a U.S. drone strike reportedly killed a top al-Qaeda figure involved in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The attack on the base was the latest indication of an intensifying conflict between U.S.-backed Yemeni security forces and al-Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate for control of southern Yemen.

Osama bin Laden spent his final years struggling to exert authority over the al-Qaeda network he founded, voicing dismay about the decisions of regional affiliates and drafting orders for often unresponsive subordinates even just one week before he was killed, according to documents released Thursday. The letters, part of a trove of material recovered during the U.S. raid on bin Laden's compound last year, include chilling admonitions to remain focused on killing Americans.