The security official disputed
statements from US officials that they may step up attacks and argued that
Yemen is able to fight Al-Qaeda without outside intervention, state news agency
Saba reported.
He also said US officials have
exaggerated the size and danger of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. "Press leaks
published in US and Western media that exaggerate the size of Al-Qaeda and the
danger that it poses to Yemen's stability and security," Saba quoted the
official as saying.
"Yemeni forces, with support from
friends and brothers, can bear complete responsibility for annihilating
Al-Qaeda elements and whatever destructive elements assist them," he said.
Yemen launched a crackdown on Al-Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's regional Yemen-based wing, after it
claimed a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December.
The United States has been involved in
Yemen's fight against militancy for a number of years, but the failed bombing
so alarmed Washington that it further stepped up its training, intelligence,
and military aid to Yemen and sent special forces there.
The United States' role was called into
question earlier this week when Amnesty International released a report which said
that US forces appeared to have collaborated with Yemen in attacks on militants
that violated international law.
The human rights watchdog said that
aerial bombings of Al-Qaeda suspects were extrajudicial killings, and urged the
US to clarify involvement of its forces or drones in such attacks.
In May, Yemeni opposition media reported
that a drone had carried out an air strike aimed at Al-Qaeda that mistakenly
killed a government mediator, sparking clashes between government forces and
his kinsmen.
Al-Qaeda militants have stepped up their
assault on Yemeni security personnel since June, claiming responsibility for
attacks that have killed dozens of people and calling them reprisals for the
state's increased collaboration with the US. On Wednesday, US officials said
they may consider increasing pressure on Al-Qaeda's Yemen wing using similar
methods to their covert drone attacks against the militant group in Pakistan.
Yemen, also struggling to curb a rising
secessionist movement in its south and cement a truce with a rebel insurgency
in its north, has faced increased pressure to resolve its domestic conflicts in
order to focus on Al-Qaeda.
Despite a spike in violence in the
southern flashpoint province of Abyan over the past week, which the government
has mostly blamed on Al-Qaeda, the Yemeni security official said that state
forces were gaining ground against militants.
"Al-Qaeda is now seeing big
declines in its ranks, whether from continuing strikes carried out by the
security apparatus or the surrender of a number of the leadership and elements
of the organization, or from arrests," he said.
