Terrorism experts go further to assert that Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP, al-Qaida fi Jazirat al-Arab), formed in Janu¬ary 2009, is a serious international security threat, rivaling that of its al-Qaeda parent organization. This group resulted from a merger between al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi branches. Saudi Arabia’s successful counter-terrorism campaign in the mid-2000s pushed many of the