The Washington Post says the CIA believes Yemen's branch of al-Qaida has surpassed its parent organization, Osama bin Laden's core group in Pakistan, as a threat to the U.S. homeland.
The newspaper reports the CIA wants to augment clandestine U.S. military operations in Yemen, with covert armed drone strikes.
U.S. special operations forces have been working with the Yemeni government for years to hunt Yemen's al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula, which counts American-born rebel cleric Anwar al-Awlaki among its leadership.
A U.S. counterterrorism official says both al-Qaida and its offshoots are dangerous, but the Yemeni branch has not faced the same pressure as the parent group in Pakistan.
The official spoke anonymously to discuss security matters.
