The search for bin Laden has shifted to Yemen, where British Special Air Service troops are hunting the al-Qaeda leader after new intelligence surfaced revealing he fled Afghanistan last year and is being protected by tribesmen in his ancestral homeland.

For much of the past year, particularly since U.S B-52 bombers crushed the Tora Bora caves last November, many assumed that Osama bin Laden was dead. However, experts consider recent audio tapes of the al-Qaeda leader authentic. This week American officials strongly suggested they believe the al-Qaeda leader to be in southeast Yemen where his father was born. They think the noose might be tightening around him. This translates into an increased American presence here.

Six other al-Qaeda members were killed in a rocket attack in Yemen by a U.S. Predator drone two weeks ago. It is no coincidence that the US has assembled an unusual collection of elite soldiers and capabilities in the area, should President Bush decide to act. Our sources say the CIA is running the operation and has its own small paramilitary force here.

Since the United States drove so many al-Qaeda fighters out of Afghanistan, American officials have been increasingly concerned that Yemen would become a safe haven for terrorists on the run. Yemen said this week that its security forces were looking for a suspected al-Qaeda member who narrowly escaped the missile attack by an unmanned CIA plane that killed six of his comrades on November 3rd. In the first admission of Yemeni consent to the strike, Yemen's Interior Minister Rashad al-Alimi said: "This operation was carried out...as part of security coordination and cooperation between Yemen and the United States." Alimi also said that the seventh al-Qaeda member had left the car moments before it was hit by a missile in the eastern Marib province. He did not name the fugitive. The statement identified four of the six men as Munir Ahmed Abdullah also known as Abu Ubaidah, Saleh Hussein Ali al-Zenu alias Abu Hammam, Owsan Ahmed al-Turaihi alis Abu al-Jarrah and Adel Nasser al Sowda, also known as Abu Osama. The sixth man was earlier identified as Kamal Derwish, also known as Ahmed Hijazi, a U.S. citizen. U.S. media reports said he headed a group linked to al-Qaeda in Lackawanna, New York.

Yemeni opposition groups have strongly criticized the missile attack and the Government's earlier silence over it. The main target of the November 3rd attack, Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, was a key suspect in the bombing of the US warship Cole in a Yemeni port in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors.

Military sources say more than 800 special operations troops - including some from the secret Delta group that specializes in "snatches" of accused criminals on foreign soil - have been gathered in the nearby state of Djibouti. The US force is being kept secure within a French military base there - the largest French facility of this kind outside France.

Government officials dismissed the notion that US special forces would be used to hunt down suspected al-Qaeda fugitives, asserting that only Yemeni troops would be used. An official said "Yemen's position is clear: Yemeni forces are responsible for conducting any operations - be they searches or attacks." He added that US involvement would be limited to training Yemeni security forces and sharing intelligence on Muslim militants.

Parts of Yemen - and especially the vast eastern third of the country known as the Hadramaut - remain beyond the control of the central Government. A further complication is the constant movement of potential terrorist targets in Yemen. US sources say Yemeni leaders are secretly negotiating about allowing an American operation within their borders.

The eyes of the world fell on Yemen this week, as it became a hub in the war on terror. Events included the capture of a key al-Qaeda operative, a renewed attempt to find Osama bin Laden and security alerts from a number of Western countries. Also, intelligence sources say that a large amphibious ship, the USS Belleau Wood, has been detached from other duties and is standing by off the coast of Yemen to act as a floating launch platform. It would allow a US force to assemble and launch without being observed, and if prisoners were taken to remove them immediately from Yemen.

The key al-Qaeda operative caught is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. "He's a top al Qaeda operational planner for the Arabian Peninsula, he was captured in recent weeks and is currently in US custody at an undisclosed location," one official said.

Al-Nashiri, who was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was among the top dozen al Qaeda leaders sought by US authorities. He has spent time in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said. They declined to reveal where he was captured. US officials say that he played a key role in organizing the October 2000 bombing of USS Cole. "His capture really is a serious blow to al Qaeda because in terms of the Persian Gulf, operationally he was the one calling the shots," another US official said, adding: "He has very long and close ties to Osama bin Laden dating back to the Afghanistan Mujahideen days" in the 1980ies.

Also this week, Kuwait security sources said authorities there had foiled a plot to bomb a hotel housing American citizens in Yemen after arresting a senior al-Qaeda member who had been helping to plan the attack.

While al-Qaeda's original base in Afghanistan has been more or less destroyed, some officials worry that the organization is spread so wide that it would require an enormous amount of effort, particularly intelligence resources and police resources, to break it up. This grim new assessment of al-Qaeda's ability to carry out terrorist attacks around the world follows publication last week of a list of 22 potential targets in Canada, including the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Toronto's CN Tower, and the B.C. Ferries system. Ottawa last week issued a travel advisory warning Canadians that they may be targeted by terrorists and to exercise "extreme" care when travelling abroad.

British police said this weekend that they had used anti-terrorism laws to arrest three men believed to have come from North Africa amidst reports they were planning a cyanide gas attack on London's underground rail system. Various officials, including the head of the German BND intelligence service and the head of Interpol, have recently warned that al-Qaeda has regrouped and remains a potent force despite a year-long US military campaign against its original Afghanistan base.

In Qatar, a journalist for the Arabic television channel al-Jazeera said he had received a document from al-Qaeda spelling out its strategy, including attacks on civilians of any country involved in the war on terrorism. London's Sunday Times quoted the document as saying: "We have the right to attack our attackers, to destroy villages and cities of whoever destroyed our villages and cities, to destroy the economy of those who have robbed our wealth and to kill civilians of the country that has killed ours."

Al-Jazeera last week broadcast an audiotape, acknowledged as authentic, in which bin Laden praised recent terrorist attacks in Bali, Moscow and Kuwait, and promised more to come. In Paris, Michele Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, warned yesterday that there was a high risk of terror attacks in France. "France is one of the first targets," she said.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that militant attacks against Western targets in Yemen hurt Yemen and provide a pretext for foreign intervention in its affairs. His remarks came one day after Sana'a admitted that a US missile strike that killed six suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group earlier this month was carried out with Yemen's consent.

The President told tribal and Islamic leaders in Sana'a: "Bombing ships in Hadramaut and bombing the Cole destroyer in Aden... and other destructive acts which harm the country are forbidden. What is going on affects not only the United States but also our nation and our stability and drives foreign powers to intervene in our internal affairs." Saleh was apparently reacting to criticism by Yemeni opposition parties of the November 3rd missile attack as a violation of Yemen's sovereignty. Yemen said the attack was part of its "security coordination and cooperation" with the US.

This time last year, the world was different. The war on terror was on, but with a certain common objective. Iraq was on the list, but not in the way the world is witnessing today. Iraq is now more responsive to United Nations resolutions and international notions.

This time last year there was no environmental crisis at Al-Mukalla resulting from the Limburg bombing. The tension in the region was not up to today's level. Regional cooperation among countries was better. International understanding of Arab and Palestinian issues was better, too.

Now the world is witnessing a variety of conflicting understandings and beliefs, new and old contradictory policies and the existence of unbalanced powers. The world today is more like a forest where monsters devour little animals. Our world is not friendly anymore. We talk about liberty, but can't travel to the country next door. What kind of freedom is that?

Putting politics aside, let's wish everyone in the world a peaceful and prosperous life and hope for all success for those who try to make our world a safer place. As Id Al-Fitr approaches, we extend our sincerest regards to the Yemen Observer's readers both in Yemen and abroad.