A man leaves a branch of the US package delivery firm UPS in Sanaa. (AFP)

Beirut, Oct. 30: Not long ago, most Americans had scarcely heard of Yemen, the arid, Texas-size country in the southern corner of the Arabian peninsula.

But yesterday, as news emerged of a plot to send explosives in courier packages from Yemen to synagogues in Chicago, the world’s attention was focused once again on the threats brewing in Yemen’s lawless, strife-torn hinterlands, where American citizens appear to be helping the local branch of al Qaida take aim at the US.

It was the second time in less than a year: on December 25, a Nigerian trained in Yemen tried to detonate a bomb on a flight as it approached Detroit, and al Qaida took credit for the attempt. The American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki had been in contact with the would-be bomber, and some analysts believe the latest effort may also be linked to Awlaki, a charismatic preacher who remains in hiding in Yemen and has issued threats by Internet.

In recent months, American intelligence officials have grown increasingly concerned about Yemen, despite a renewed cooperation on counterterrorism with the Yemeni authorities in the past year. Al Qaida’s regional arm, which went quiet for several months after a series of American airstrikes in Yemen that began last December, has become more active since the spring, and has killed several dozen Yemeni soldiers and police officers.

The group has also stepped up its recruitment drive on the Internet, issuing an English-language magazine that includes articles with titles like “Make a Bomb in Your Mother’s Kitchen.”