US Middle East defense forces commander to visit Yemen for establishing a US military base

The commander of the US defense forces in the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni is to begin a visit to Yemen today to hold high-level talks.

Zinni chairs the US central leadership on a military training operation in Aden, in which US soldiers help Yemeni soldiers to remove unexploded land mines remaining since the civil war.

The visit comes at the beginning of Yemeni-US military cooperation, and it is the second visit for General Zinni in less than two years, in which he will hold talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and high-ranking military leaders.

The visit aims at inspection of the program for mutual training in the Yemeni south.

A Yemeni source told ArabicNews.com that the visit of the US military official to Yemen is not committed only to the removal of mines, but the aim is to establish a military base on a Yemeni island.