During the last decade, the fragility of the Yemeni state has catapulted to the top tier of the national security concerns of the United States. Following the suicide attacks against the Navy destroyer USS Cole in October 2000, while it was harbored for refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden, and against the French oil tanker, MV Limburg, in October 2002, off the Ash Shihr oil terminal near the Yemeni port of al-Mukalla, the US government placed Yemen in the arc of suspected breeding sites of terrorism that stretches from the Sahel and the Horn of Africa into the Middle East and Southeast Asia.