NEWPORT, R.I. - The nation's top military leader said Friday the United States has no plans to send troops into Yemen, and that country has made it clear it does not want U.S. ground forces there.

In an address Friday to hundreds of students at the Naval War College in Newport, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed issues raised by the Christmas Day attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jet by a Nigerian man whom the FBI says told them he was trained by al-Qaida in Yemen.

Mullen said he is asked all the time if the U.S. is sending troops to Yemen, and said: "The answer is, we have no plans to do that, and we shouldn't forget this is a sovereign country."
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Later, he told reporters he considered Yemen an emerging safe-haven for al-Qaida, and said the U.S. would broaden its support with additional diplomatic engagement.

"They've been pretty clear about the support that they want and what they don't want," Mullen said. "Their foreign minister has been very clear, that they're not interested in forces on the ground."

Yemeni officials said this week that they accept help from U.S. forces in training, intelligence and logistical support. Direct combat or large force deployments would not be acceptable, the officials said.

Speaking to CNN host Fareed Zakaria, Mullen praised Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"We have great respect for the president there in terms of his, his judgment, in terms of what he needs to do," Mullen said in an interview to air Sunday. "And right now as far as any kind of boots on the ground there, with respect to the United States, that's just not ... a possibility. He's just, we're not, into those kinds of discussions."

HINGHAM -- Hundreds of townspeople lined Central Street today before dawn to wave American flags and bid farewell 75 local soldiers deploying to Iraq.

Two buses carrying the soldiers from the 1058th Transportation Company rumbled out of the Hingham Armory at 6:30 a.m. as the flashing lights of fire trucks and police cruisers lit the otherwise dark sky.

For many, including Sergeant Allen Carmo, 45, this is the second time since 2003 that they have deployed to Iraq with the 1058th, which includes National Guard members from across Massachusetts.

Carmo acknowledged that nerves had him sick to his stomach this morning even though this deployment should be "easier" because the threat level in Iraq is "lower." To spare his 4-year-old son the emotionally charged environment at the Amory farewell, Carmo said good-bye to the boy at home in Maynard Sunday night.

"I didn't want to put him through this," Carmo said.

The 1058th also deployed to Iraq in the 1990s during Operation Desert Storm. The soldiers will fly later today from Hanscom Air Force Base to Ft. Sill, Okla. They will leave for Kuwait and Iraq on an undisclosed date.