WASHINGTON Ñ The United States and Yemen have agreed on a schedule
for U.S. military training.
The plan is said to consist of a staged arrival of U.S. military
trainers in Yemen over the next few months. The trainers will come in groups
of up to 30 and stay for at least a month at a time.
Officials said the first group arrived earlier this month. The group
consists of 24 trainers and will be increased to 100 military personnel. The
U.S. military presence will remain in Yemen for at least three months.
The U.S. soldiers will train both Yemeni troops and police and help
establish a coast guard to patrol the nation's 2,300 kilometer coastline.
They will teach the Yemenis combat techniques as well as the use of
night-vision and other equipment.
"Yemen could use anything that we give them," a U.S. official said. "The
situation there is that bad."
The training plan was discussed by U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney
with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday. Cheney arrived in
Yemen for a brief visit in wake of a request from Saleh and discussed his
nation's military and security requirements.
"We have increasingly developed in more recent months very close
bilateral relations between the United States and Yemen," Cheney said after
his meeting with Saleh.
U.S. officials said Saleh continues to oppose a U.S. combat presence in
Yemen. They dismissed reports that as many as 400 U.S. soldiers have already
arrived in Sanaa to help in a search-and-destroy operation for Al Qaida
insurgents.
Yemen, the officials said, appears to require military and security
training more than advanced equipment. They said Yemen's ability to absorb
advanced systems, including coastal vessels, is limited.
