DUBAI (Dispatches) -- According to Shabwa province’s governor, where the so-called Christmas Day “underwear bomber” is thought to have been trained, dozens of Saudi and Egyptian veterans of al-Qaeda’s operations in Afghanistan have been pouring into Yemen.

Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told al-Sharq al-Awsat newspapers that the militants had joined homegrown Yemeni radicals both from Shabwa and other regions of the country.
The province in the northeast of the Yemen has been a target of a series of air raids with American military support shortly before Christmas. Among those targeted was Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American cleric who is believed to have inspired both the army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan's who went on a shooting rampage in Texas, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up an airliner on Christmas day.
Abdulmutallab admits being trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen, and is said by the authorities to have been in Shabwa.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s most influential Islamic cleric, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, warned the government on Monday against allowing “foreign occupation” of the country in the growing cooperation with the U.S. against ql-Qaeda.
Al-Zindani, a radical cleric who once associated with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, addressing a news conference held at his San’a home said: “We accept any cooperation in the framework of respect and joint interests, and we reject military occupation of our country. And we don’t accept the return to colonization.”
President Barack Obama said he does not plan to send American combat forces to Yemen, and San'a has said it will not allow such a deployment.
The U.S. has labeled al-Zindani a “global terrorist,” but Yemen’s government courts his support. The deputy prime minister last week denied al-Zindani is a member of al-Qaeda.
During the news conference al-Zindani denied had had any influence on the al-Awlaki, also labeled terrorist with alleged al-Qaida links.
Gordon Brown has called an international conference in London later this month to discuss how to deal with Yemen's well-publicized security problems.
Yemen is the poorest Arab country and is torn by a civil war with Shia rebels in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and an active al-Qaeda network.
Photo: Yemen’s influential cleric, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani warned of “foreign occupation.” (Photo by AP)
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