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Updated: May 21, 2012 A horrific attack on a paramilitary force practicing for a paradein the Yemeni capital has left more than 90 dead and hundredsinjured. A man dressed as a soldier apparently detonated a beltpacked with explosives, setting off a blast that littered thesquare near the presidential palace with limbs and heads and blood.The BBC reported an al-Qaeda source saying the organization claimedresponsibility for the suicide bombing. The carnage in Sana'a takesplace as the government is in the middle of a major campaignagainst al-Qaeda, as TIME's Tom Finn originally filed last week inthe story below: A chorus of wailing muezzins and rattling windowpanes awokeresidents of Yemen's capital Sana'a on Friday as a sortie ofgovernment fighter jets dipped over mountains to the north andscreamed across the city. The country is now seeing the largestmilitary offensive in its history — the battle to uprootal-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). And America is intimatelyinvolved in this war, providing arms, training and intelligence toYemen's armed forces as it pursues this fierce new war in theMiddle East. The Pentagon believes AQAP may have established themost dangerous base of operations in the Arab world. A plot last month by the group to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner— the third attempt in as many years — was scotched by aCIA undercover agent masquerading as a suicide bomber. The incidentproved incentive enough for Yemen to ratchet up its 10-year fightagainst jihadism supported by the United States. (MORE: Yemen Army Enters al-Qaeda Stronghold) Yemen had slipped off the radar since last year when mass protests,mutinying generals and looming international sanctions helpedunseat the country's strongman, Ali Abdullah Saleh, after 33-yearsin power. Though a political transition is underway, the countryremains on a knife-edge. Shi'a rebels, southern separatists, and afamine brought on by a crippled economy are all sapping Yemen'sefforts to build a new political order. But it is a group ofal-Qaeda fighters in the south, who have driven out governmentforces and set up "Jihadi emirates" — mini Islamic fiefdoms— who now pose the gravest threat to the country. Sweeping east from the southern port city of Aden and backed byheavy artillery and warplanes, thousands of Yemeni soldiers usingtanks and Katusha rockets are trying to dislodge al-Qaeda fromtheir lairs and strongholds in the mountains of Abyan province.Hunkered down amongst residents of local towns and villages themilitants are using Duskas (Soviet-era heavy machine guns) andartillery they seized in forays on army outposts to stave off thearmy's advance. "They [al-Qaeda] are fighting a guerrilla war.Hiding amongst civilians.. fighting us tooth and nail with our ownweapons," says Brigadier General Mohammed al-Sawmli, whose Brigade25 was pinned down for months by the Islamic militants last yearafter Yemeni security forces abandoned Abyan. "Every time we seizenew ground they try to take it back. They prefer dawn raids so ourmen are getting little sleep, but God willing we will prevail." With Sana'a busy trumpeting the military's advances on the eveningnews it is ordinary Yemeni citizens, not soldiers, who appear to beturning the tide against the jihadists. Residents of Lawder, astrategic town nestled among Abyan's rugged mountains and a sceneof much of last week's fighting, have organized themselves intocivilian groups known as "popular committees." Using arms leftbehind by deserting army brigades, the committees have held offdaily assaults on the city by al-Qaeda for months. (PHOTOS: Yemen on the Brink) Ali Eidha, spokesman for a committee called 'the sons of Lawder,'said his tribesmen, fighting alongside the army, were pushingal-Qaeda back. "Yesterday we took back Jabal Yasouf," he says overthe phone, referring to a strategic mountain above Lawder thatcontrols access to other al-Qaeda held towns in Abyan. "After thedawn prayer warplanes began bombing their positions from the sky,then we ascended up the mountain, arresting and driving al-Qaedaoff the hillside. Afterwards we lit fires on the hilltops incelebration." Eidha said his men had found the corpses of 12 Yemenisoldiers in a ditch on the mountaintop; their heads and handsmissing. "They call themselves Muslims but they are barbarians,"says Eidha. "They do not understand mercy." Since assuming the presidency in February, Abd Rabu Monsur Hadi,Saleh's former deputy, a renowned political lightweight, has buckedexpectations — shaking up the military and purging Saleh'sloyalists from key posts in an effort to break up webs of patronageand cronyism still controlled by his predecessor. Whereas Saleh'srelationship with Washington blew hot and cold — strained bysuspicions that he was encouraging al-Qaeda to extract more fundsfrom Washington, Hadi — who has bullish pledges of support forthe U.S. and has made belligerent threats against the terror group— has taken on the image of an incensed warlord. "The pursuitof terrorists is irreversible," Hadi told Washington's chiefcounter-terrorism czar, John Brennan, in a meeting in Sana'a thisweek. Brennan, a military strategist who is America's chief liaisonwith Yemen, responded with a verbal pat on the back: "You aremaking historical decisions during these critical times in modernday Yemen." Nevertheless, while Hadi may wish to ensure the continued flow ofbillions of U.S. dollars to his near-empty government coffers, hisrapport with the Americans is making him vulnerable to domesticpolitical sniping. On Thursday al-Qaeda released a video portrayingHadi as a stooge of Saleh and an "agent" of the United States. "Thecorrupt [Yemeni] forces have agreed to fight the Mujahideen underthe American flag and with Saudi funding," said al-Qaeda's leaderAyman al-Zawahri in the video. "The country should be cleansed fromcorrupt politicians who suck the people's blood like vampires ...and move towards building a Muslim Yemen governed by God's law." Aweb banner linking to the video uses graphics to dress up Yemen'snew president in an Uncle Sam suit. Zawahiri's rhetoric can usually be dismissed as extremistramblings. However, U.S. policy in Yemen is indeed breedingwidespread anti-American sentiment. An expansion of U.S. droneattacks in Yemen, endorsed by the Obama administration last month,has whipped up discontent among a population that views Americaninfluence as an encroachment on sovereignty. Many Yemenis seeGerald Feierstein, the U.S. ambassador, as the public face of acruel military campaign that all too often misses its targets. InDecember 2009, a U.S. cruise missile crashed into a caravan oftents in the rural south, killing dozens, among them 14 women and21 children. "Further civilian casualties from airstrikes, whether inflicted bythe U.S. or not strengthen the logic and appeal of al-Qaeda," saysFarid Al- Zahar, a politics professor from Aden University. "Everytime an airstrike kills a civilian al-Qaeda can point and say,'look, your government not only neglects you, it allows Americansto kill your people. What kind of government is that? Is it agovernment you want to work with or a government you want to fightand destroy?" 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