But the battle to calm such acts of terrorism has been reinvigorated by a government crackdown on Yemen's arms trade, which fuels much of the fundamentalist Islamic groups and tribal conflicts.
Yemen has come under increasing pressure from the US , a key financial and
military backer, to take harsher action against the illicit trade in weapons, which experts say are funneled to militias and radical insurgent groups throughout the Middle East.
"The explanation in them makes no haze or cloudiness about who is producing them -- they are al Qaeda's Sunni sympathizers of the Political Islamist Islah party," said Mohammed kuhaly, political analyst and lead researcher of the local NGO Political Development Program.
For less than a dollar apiece, some jihadi literature, VCDs, admire the brave and exciting actions of al Qaeda fighters, promise 72 heavenly virgins for prospective martyred bombers and prescribe beheadings for spies.
There are also training movies on how to run a guerrilla war, based on Islamist insurgent militants fighting the US-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Messages in the movies put all Arab leaders including President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and President George W. Bush at the top of a hit list for would-be murderers in a war against what are described as the American "crusader forces".
President Saleh has banned several radical religious schools belonging to opposition Islamist Islah party since 2002, and just two years ago he launched yet another campaign against militant Shiite rebels stirring sectarian violence between Yemen's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites.
Adel Qasim runs an Islamic bookstore in Sana'a and says Saleh's policies since Sept. 11attacks, have definitely been bad for such business.
"In fact, our sales were doing very well when we were trading jihadi literature," Qasim lamented. "Now this business, from time to time, has gone underground. But it is openly sold to known people."
In Sana'a also, the owner of another bookshop said such material could always be arranged to trusted customers.
It is not difficult, however, to find the leader of one of the most radical groups in Yemen. His message of extremist Islam can be heard outside a number of well-known mosques.
Sheikh Hazza Al-Maswary, representative of Islamist Islah party that form the largest opposition block in the Parliament, has kept a low profile for some time because of pressure from Yemen's security apparatus, according to some analysts.
But outside Mujahid mosque in Sana'a, his voice blares out from speakers from among the shops selling perfumes, head caps, religious books, cassettes and films after Friday prayers.
"Curse on the Christian Americans and Jews... those are killers… and we will make jihad against them, we will rob them of their peace," legislator Al-Maswary thunders.
"Muslims must not follow the Christians and Jews, and God says he will not accept anyone but Muslims."
Not all Yemeni preachers are spreading messages of Jihad. Some are moderate and fighting radicalism among their groups. While other preachers exert efforts among armed tribal conflicts and help to bring a measure of peace to this mountainous Arab country. [END]
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
