The US is gearing up to attack al Qaeda targets in Yemen, possibly in retaliation to the failed attempt to bomb a US plane on Christmas Day, believed to have been masterminded by extremists operating in that country.
The strike, media reports said, is being planned in association with the government of Yemen.
While no decision in this regard has been taken at the level of US president Barack Obama, officials said, they are gearing up for such a move, given that intelligence agencies are increasingly concluding that al Qaeda in Yemen was responsible for the strike.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in messages posted on various radical websites on December 28, had claimed responsibility for the December 25 attempt on a Northwest Airlines flight that could have killed nearly 300 people.
Several US agencies have authenticated the message.
CNN said US special operations forces and intelligence agencies, and their Yemeni counterparts, are working to identify potential al Qaeda targets in Yemen.
"This is part of a new classified agreement with the Yemeni government that the two countries will work together, and that the US will remain publicly silent on its role in providing intelligence and weapons to conduct strikes," it said.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is the wing of al-Qaeda operating in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, led by Nasir Wuhaishi, a Yemeni who was once a close aide to Osama bin Laden.
