the prisoners told him they were in fact the yemeni soldiers capture in the attack near jaar. while the camera was rolling, they pleaded for the government to agree to demands for a prisoner exchange. many claimed the al qaeda fighters had been better armed and supplied. >> it was a very, very difficult situation to be tasituation to a journalist to interview prisoners. i have been detained before, and i know how hard it is, how hopeless you are, how you have no control. it was very difficult. >> narrator: a few minutes after this scene was filmed, the guards ordered the cameras turned off, and blindfolded the team again. their visit was over. >> i thought, "okay, we've done something. now we'll be detained, and we'll be put with the prisoners." and as we sat blindfolded, a man comes, and he started addressing us. he had this very deep, sinister voice. and he said, "those are our detainees. the sharia tell us we can kill them or we can exchange them for prisoners. and we want to tell the yemeni government that those people will be killed if negotiation doesn't start very soon.

carnage in the heart of the yemeni capital. -- to wreak carnage in the heart of the yemeni capital. it was at of tomorrow's planned parade to celebrate the country's unity. the capitals hospitals were overwhelmed and called for blood donors. this is worse than almost anything its residents can remember. we were just waiting for the defense minister's speech, says this soldier, and we have no idea where the explosion came from. >> yemen has been shaped -- shaken by last year's protests. its longstanding president driven out and in the confusion, al qaeda has moved in, taking large tracts of territory in the south. today's bombing is a message of defiance from al qaeda to the new president. it took place in the capitol right by the presidential palace. it should have been a secure area. it comes as government forces are battling al qaeda, mainly in a certain province. yemen worries the west because from there, al qaeda has sent sophisticated bombs on planes bound for the middle east, britain, and america. mid-air disasters have o

most yemenis didn't bother voting who had been in the streets and who had wanted for real change and so the threat of al qaeda is something that the united states stokes again to justify its massive violations of yemenis human rights these drone attacks against civilians and also it's just covering up the basic human rights violations throughout the middle east but particularly in yemen and so al qaeda is not necessarily going to be the threat but it helps the president generate support at home with his national security strategy he apparently foiled another plot to attack the united states coming from yemen but who knows you know looking at our tactics at home the f.b.i. has been doing entrapment for a lot of these terrorist cases and so it's likely that u.s. and saudi agents are in yemen right now encouraging these sort of attacks and al qaeda is really not a threat as the united states says it is. very briefly the u.s. is now moving a sanction people obstructing the political process in yemen why do you think washington is getting involved in yemen's internal affairs. well i belie

yesterday, the yemeni military and the u.s.elt progress had been made against al qaeda, but tonight here in yemen, sadly it is al qaeda claiming victory. diane. >> martha raddatz once again reporting from a terror zone. >>> and there's also news on the other battleground afghanistan. president obama and the nato allies made it official. afghghan forces will take the ld in combat next summer. in preparation for the u.s. withdrawal at the stroke of midnight on december 31, 2014. but the announcement raises question among the 89,000 american troops still in afghanistan and jake tapper brought some of those questions straight to the president today. listen. >> reporter: if this hand-off is premature, what plans are in place for an afghanistan falling apart or under taliban rule? >> i don't think there's ever going to be an optimal point where we say, this is all done. this is perfect, this is just the way we wanted it and now we can wrap up all our equipment and go home. there's a process. and it's sometimes a messy process. >> and

what a yemeni official just told us a while ago, that the yemeni department did have a warning at theould be a bomb, they didn't have a very specific target, but there was some information that there could be a bomb attack, there was a lot of talk about a possible bomb or an airline bomb. but they think inns in connection with the arab peninsula bombmaker. >> i want to go to chris lawrence at the pentagon. what are you hearing, chris? >> reporter: wolf, defense secretary leon panetta is about to start a press conference -- we hope to get a question to him about what the u.s. intelligence might have known. we reported on a bulletin that went out from the department of homeland security, as well as the fbi. but this bullet included u.s. northern command which struck as somewhat unusual. they're usually not included on warning bulletins like this, and it specifically mentions that there was an aviation threat. >> some sort of new explosive device that may have been potentially used to try to knock out an airliner on the anniversary of bin laden's death. what do you make of this? >> the m

government yemeni of course is the emmen is a scrabble poor country desperately poor they're running out of water they have no food they have limited hospitals limited educational opportunities and al qaeda yemen's sits right next door to saudi arabia for the ever since the bombing of the u.s.s. cole al qaeda has made it clear that it wants to establish a base inside yemen to attack the saudi oil fields right next door and anything that they can do to alienate the yemeni people from the central authority and the west this is the united states caused this and this is a this is a this is a great victory for them it's a very bad decision by the united states coming up on our a life apart one palestinian family cut off by the israeli barrier separating them from their community that community and a lot of the hood. for the first time in decades mexican immigrants no longer wish to go to the united states may be something many americans have wanted for a long time but soon they may start regretting it we'll tell you one. thing these are the images the world has been seeing from the street

al qaeda has said it was behind the attack and threatens more attacks unless the yemeni government stops its campaign against muslims. correspondent frank gardner reports. >> some thought at first it was a ceremonial cannon, but it was alone suicide bomber sent by al qaeda to wreak carnage in the heart of the yemeni capital. the trips were rehearsing for tomorrow's planned parade to celebrate the country's unity. the call for blood donors. this is worse than almost any think they can remember. we were just waiting for the speech. we had no idea where the explosion came from. yemen has been shaken by last year's arab spring protests. in the confusion, al qaeda has moved in and, taking large tracts of territory. today's human bombing is a message of defiance from al qaeda to the new president. to -- it took place in the capitol square right by the presidential palace. it should have been a secure area. it comes as government forces are battling in the province. it is a vicious, largely unseen war. yemen worries the west because from there, al qaeda and sent out sophisticated bombs on plane

. >>> yemeni government forces have recaptured one of the strongholds of an al qaeda-linked militant group in the south of the country after heavy fighting. the group al qaeda in the arabian peninsula seize the province and other cities last year, taking advantage of the political turmoil in yemen. government forces on thursday drove more than 1,000 militants out of the town of lawder in abyan province. the yemeni army launched one of its largest operations against the group last week, deploying 25,000 troops across the province, backed by the u.s. military. the u.s. federal bureau of investigations announced last week that it had foiled a bomb attack attempt by the group against an airliner bound for the u.s. from yemen. the yemeni army is also encircling al qaeda strongholds in the towns of zinjibar and jaar where more than 5,000 al qaeda militants are holed up, including some from other countries. >>> china and north korea are caught up in a rare public spat, representatives from both sides are negotiating the release of three chinese fishing boats and their crews. authorities in

a suicide bomber killed more than 90 soldiers and injured hundreds more in the yemeni capital.ere is the bbc security correspondent. >> some thought at first it was a ceremonial canon, but it was a suicide bomber sent by al qaeda to wreak carnage in the capital. his did explosive tore through the church rehearsing for tomorrow's planned parade to celebrate the country's unity. the hospitals were overwhelmed this is worse than almost anything the residents can remember. >> we've just waiting for the defense minister's speech. we have no idea where the explosion came from, says this soldier. yemen has been shaken by last year's arab spring protests. the longstanding president driven out. in the confusion, al qaeda has moved in taking territory in the south. today's bombing is a message of defiance from al qaeda to the new president. it took place in the capital sq right by the presidential palace. it should have been a secure area. it comes as government forces are battling al qaeda in the south. it is a vicious largely unseen war with al qaeda clinging to ground it has taken in

common ground between opposition and the regime i still believe that the only solution is the yemeni scenario this is my position this is the position of tunisia and of course we are against any kind of intervention whether it comes from your party received eight point seven percent of the vote during your term is you know election and the. more islamic party have received thirty seven percent of the vote during that election but you personally have sixty percent approval by the chinese in public what percent of power do you think think you have. let me let me tell you first that in the west people think that. it. political islam is prevailing on democracy and is it exactly the contrary i think that we here in tunisia. the center of spark the separate part of the spectrum islamist. the central part of the spectrum islamist spectrum. is now part of the democratic system of the game so i can say that democracy prevailed on. islamic movement because became democrats and we did it as a secular we did it become. so. there is a oughtn't because i'm very surprised that the way that western

the media say the attack was planned by yemeni terrorist group al qaeda in the, a rabbian peninsula. theyay the cia planted an operative inside the group. the agent volunteered as a suicide bomber to obtain details of the plot and pass them to u.s. intelligence. the cia reportedly vere vealed the plot after ensuring the safety of the agent and his family. the media say the double agent also helped locate a senior member of the al qaeda affiliate. the cia killed him in a drone attack on sunday. the terrorist was accused of involvement in the deadly 2000 bombing of the destroyer "uss cole" in a yemeni port. >>> greeks could soon find themselves participating in something they just went through, a national election. they voted for members of parliament on sunday. but leading parties are having difficulty finding partners to form a ruling coalition. the parties in the ruling coalition new democracy lost their combined majority after voters rejected the austerity measures. new democracy won the most seats, but its leader has failed to persuade other parties to join the coalition. oppositi

the state department says it recently hacked into yemeni tribal websites and replaced tribal propaganda that bragged about killing americans. >> reporter: a u.s. cyber attack striking al-qaeda's affiliate in yemen. the state department hacked the group's website which tried to recruit new supporters. specialists at the department bought space on the site and replaced anti-american ads. an >> our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the told al- qaeda attacks have taken on the yemeni people. >> reporter: secretary clinton says the hacking is making an impact. >> we monitor the extremists venting their frustration and asking their supporters not to believe everything they read on the internet. >> reporter: yemen's al-qaeda affiliate is considered one of the terrorist group's most dangerous offshoots. it launched at least three foiled attacks against the u.s., the christmas day bomb plot in 2009, a printer cartridge bomb attempt in 2010 and the upgraded underwear bomb plot this year. the secretary says the cyber warfare provides support for american mi

that the bloodshed in syria this is the most important thing this is why i said look we have the yemeni scenario it could be good solution for. syrian people they say why these guys. go to russia and the russians said we are not interesting and having a journalist asked me would you be interested in having this man and i said of course if this would be a solution but i know probably you know also that assad will never ask. so it's it's not credible question and not a political. position of course. he would probably flee talk to russia or any other country but never in tunisia you held this conference recently. the prince of syria which included in coming to that was hillary clinton and many other powerful people from the west and from the region information that we released recently. showed that. the u.s. security sector is off the belief that there are u.s. special forces already in syria and money flowing into syria to the syrian resistance. you have said that you do not believe in story intervention in syria and you do not believe the news you should supply arms to the syrian resista

which is why the yemeni army with u.s. help is now waging all out war against al qaeda. as some 20,000 yemeni army troops pounding al qaeda strongholds in southern yemen, the u.s. is striking from above. with armed drones. at least 18 strikes since march. three in just the last ten days. and no wonder an official tells abc news tonight that there are as many as 3,000 al qaeda supporters in yemen now that two to three times the number from a year ago. dozens of terrorists have reportedly been killed by the country continues for ibrahim al-asiri, the al qaeda bomb maker plotting to blow up an american airliner after three failed attempts, including the most recent underwear bomb plot foiled by a double agent. but u.s. intelligence about al-asiriry is improving everyday, after more than a year away from yemen, a handful of the u.s. military trainers are now back. >> once you establish more sensors, more capability, a better intelligence apparatus, let's call it, that the opportunity then to understand who's bad and who's good and where they might be at any given time increa

in the long run it's that sort of training enabling the yemenis to govern especially southern end of the country which i think is going to be so critical to maintaining some sort of stability in that country and eliminating the safe haven which unfortunately now exists. >> warner: back to asiri, the bomb maker, tell us just a little bit about him and why with all these resources, u.s. resources now trained on yemen is he so hard to apprehend? >> well, it is difficult when these individuals are hiding in the mountains or hiding in far away places and al-asiri is wanted not only by the united states but he's also wanted by the saud dis. remember, al-asiri recruited his own brother, abdullah, as a suicide bomber in order to assassinate prince mohammed, the deputy prime minister... the deputy interior minister in saudi arabia using an underwear bomb if i recall. he's a very dedicated individual. he's a very evil individual and he's one of those people who basically were from the members original al qaeda under bin laden. he was arrested in saudi arabia at one point then was released from

.- yemeni war on al-qaeda's chapter in the country. ( siren ) sirens blared in the yemeni capital of sanaa as emergency vehicles sped to the scene of the thunderous blast. hundreds of soldiers had gathered near the presidential palace for a military parade rehearsal when a person in uniform detonated a belt of explosives. >> ( translated ): this is the work of al-qaida, it is clear that this is their work, they did this. >> holman: and within hours, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula made that claim. it said the targets included yemen's defense minister, who was present, but unhurt. the militants said the bombing was retaliation for a recent army offensive to recapture key towns in the south. al-qaeda fighters gained ground there during last year's uprising that ousted former president ali abdullah saleh. in a warning today, the al-qeada group warned of more attacks, unless the army pulls back. it said, "what happened today is but the start of a jihad project in defense of honor and sanctities." even before the yemeni army's offensive, the u.s. stepped up a drone aircraft campaign aga