WASHINGTON: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh admits lying to his own people by pretending that US military strikes against Al-Qaeda are carried out by Yemeni forces, according to a leaked US document.

“We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,” Saleh said in January talks with General David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the Middle East, according to a US diplomatic cable published by the whistleblower group WikiLeaks.

The cable was sent by the US ambassador to Yemen, Stephen Seche, according to the WikiLeaks website.

The cable said Saleh made the remarks when he welcomed a Petraeus proposal to move away from using cruise missiles to hit militants and instead use aircraft dropping precision-guided bombs from outside Yemeni territory.

Saleh saw cruise missiles as less accurate, it said.

It said Saleh’s remarks prompted Yemen’s deputy prime minister Alimi to joke that he had just “lied” by telling parliament that Yemeni forces had staged strikes against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni arm.

During a meeting about Al-Qaeda with John Brennan, the US deputy national security adviser, Saleh was “dismissive, bored and impatient,” according to another leaked US diplomatic cable published in Britain’s The Guardian.

With more than 100,000 US troops fighting Al-Qaeda’s allies in Afghanistan and public skepticism in Yemen over the US military’s role there, US officials have stressed that Sanaa will lead the fight against Islamist militants.

On November 16, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said providing equipment and training to Yemeni security forces offered the best way to counter the threat posed by Al-Qaeda militants. — AFP