US President Barack Obama praised Yemen's 'determination' to fight terror during a phone call Thursday with his counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh, the White House said. But despite commitments by the Yemeni government to crack down on extremism, the two leaders noted that Al-Qaeda remained a 'continuing threat' in the country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. 'President Obama applauded Yemen's determination to address the terrorist threat the Yemeni people face and recognized the sacrifices of Yemeni forces involved in this effort,' according to a White House readout of the call. 'They also discussed the continuing threat of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and international assistance to Yemen to support its counterterrorism efforts.' Obama and Saleh spoke just a day after some 20 suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen launched simultaneous attacks on the intelligence and security service headquarters in the south Yemen town of Zinjibar, killing three policemen and wounding 11. Two gunmen were also killed and one wounded in the clashes. Extremists are known to be regrouping in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al- Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the impoverished nation has witnessed repeated attacks claimed by the jihadists on foreign missions, tourist sites and oil facilities. In May, AQAP claimed responsibility for an attack that prompted the British embassy in Sanaa to close for nearly two weeks. The government has intensified operations against the group since the attempted bombing of a US-bound airliner on December 25 by a Nigerian believed to have been trained and supplied by the group in Yemen. Even before that failed attack over the US city of Detroit, Yemeni air strikes killed 34 suspected AQAP members on December 17 in an attack on an alleged training camp in Abyan. Another 34 militants were reportedly killed in an air strike on December 24. 'They are cooperating,' Obama said of Yemeni authorities, speaking in an NBC interview which aired Thursday. 'This is a tough part of the world, but we are building up capacity working with them to make sure that we don't take our eye off the ball even as we continue to put pressure (on Al-Qaeda) between Afghanistan and Pakistan.' Obama warned on NBC that Al-Qaeda remained 'dangerous' in Yemen and had gained strength there in large part because the terror network was being squeezed elsewhere. 'We have actually been pretty successful at forcing Al-Qaeda in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan to hunker down,' Obama told the network. 'It's hard for them to carry out big operations. We've got to keep that pressure up,' he added. But he warned that 'many people are traveling to Yemen, getting indoctrinated and then being sent back to the West.' AQAP leader Nasir al-Wahayshi, in an interview with the organization's new English-language magazine, said Muslims living in the West should launch attacks 'in defense of the Prophet Mohammed,' according to SITE Intelligence, a US service that monitors Islamist websites. 'My advice to my Muslim brothers in the West is to acquire weapons and learn methods of war,' Wahayshi is quoted as saying. As well as the resurgence of Al-Qaeda, Yemen is in the grip of an economic crisis, a secessionist movement in the south, and the aftermath of a long- running Zaidi Shiite rebellion in the north. In his talks with Saleh, Obama backed a 'comprehensive and inclusive' Yemeni national dialogue on economic, political and human rights concerns, the White House said. It added the two discussed 'US and international support for policies to address Yemen's political and economic challenges, including through the Friends of Yemen group,' a forum of aid donors to the country. 