SANAA, Yemen, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence cooperation with former Iraqi Baath leaders with strong Yemeni ties could grow as counter-terrorism efforts in Yemen intensify.
U.S. and British intelligence officials have pledged to ramp up their cooperation with Yemen in the wake of a failed plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day.
Yemen forged a strong tie with Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The government in Sanaa gave refuge to family members of former deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and military leader Izzat al-Douri in Yemen following the fall of Baghdad in 2003.
With the intelligence community scrambling to meet the AQAP threat, U.S. intelligence officers are likely to form a relationship with former Baath Party henchmen, London's Telegraph newspaper reports.
Douri is considered a leader of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, while Aziz is on trial for war crimes in an Iraqi special tribunal.
