Saudi born Abdulraheem al-Nashiri, prime suspect of the USS Cole bombing, paid $40,000 to fund the Limburg attack.
With that money, the former Al Qaida leader Abu Ali al-Harithi bought the explosives and transported them from his house in Shabwa to Mukalla in Hadramut.
Al-Qaeda members sent letters to 45 Jews living in al-Salem (near Sana'a) on January 19, 2007, accusing them of involvement in an "international Zionist conspiracy".
According to a report published by the Associated Press, the United Arab Emirates runs a network of secret prisons across southern Yemen, where several hundreds of Yemenis on suspicion of being al-Qaida or Islamic State militants are held.
In March 2018, Emirati officers blind-folded and handcuffed all the detainees of Beir Ahmed prison and made them stand under the sun until noon.
[13] Some witnesses said the target may have been the mosque's imam, or prayer leader, an army officer who adheres to the Salafi school of Sunni Islam.
Military personnel are among those who usually pray at the Bin Salman mosque, which like others in Yemen caters for both the majority Sunni community and Shia Zaidis.
[17] In the wake of the attack, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel De Gucht originally rejected that Al-Qaeda might be responsible, explaining that although the possibility could be avoided, internecine disputes and latent Islamism also to be taken into account.
[20] In December 2001 a search by government forces for two Yemenis believed to be senior al-Qaeda members hiding near Ma'rib led to a gun battle with tribesmen which ended in the deaths of 34 people, including 18 soldiers.
To defuse the situation, ten Ma'rib sheikhs were detained as hostages of the state in the presidential palace for 35 days, until 43 lesser tribesmen took their place.
[21] At the request of the United States, Spanish troops boarded and detained a ship transporting Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen in December 2002.
[24] On December 17 the village of Al Ma`jalah was hit by a cruise missile which killed 41 people, including 14 women and 21 children; 14 were alleged al-Qaeda members.
While the Yemeni government initially took responsibility, photographs of American components and a leaked diplomatic cable suggested that it was carried out by the United States.
[28][29] In 2004, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC-TV) international-affairs program Foreign Correspondent investigated the targeted killing and the involvement of the US ambassador as part of a report entitled "The Yemen Option".
[32] Six Yemeni suspected al-Qaeda members were blown up in their car in Marib province in November 2002 by a Hellfire missile from an unmanned CIA Predator drone.
[33] Among the dead were Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi (aka Abu Ali al-Harithi), a suspected senior al-Qaeda lieutenant believed to have helped mastermind the October 2000 USS Cole bombing.
[28][35][36] In May 2010 an errant US drone attack targeting al Qaeda terrorists in Wadi Abida killed five people, including Ma'rib province deputy governor Jaber al-Shabwani (who was mediating between the government and the militants).
The killing angered Shabwani's tribesmen and in subsequent weeks they fought government security forces, twice attacking a major oil pipeline in the province.
[40] On June 3, 2011, American manned jets (or drones) killed Ali Abdullah Naji al-Harithi, a mid-level al-Qaeda operative, and several other militant suspects, including Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli, in a strike in southern Yemen.
[46] According to local residents and unnamed American and Yemeni government officials, on July 14, 2011, US manned aircraft (or drones) attacked and destroyed a police station in Mudiya, Abyan Governorate which had been occupied by al-Qaeda militants.
[47][48][49][50][51] On August 1, 2011, US drones and reported Yemeni aircraft attacked three targets with bombs and missiles in southern Yemen, killing 15 suspected al-Qaeda militants and wounding 17 others.
[73] According to a statement released by the Yemeni Interior Ministry, on April 20–21 three US drone strikes killed at least two dozen suspected AQAP members and destroyed one of the group's training camps in southern Yemen.
[74] A June 13 suspected US drone strike targeted a car in the Mafraq al-Saeed region of Shabwah province, killing the five alleged AQAP operatives inside.