My World Earth: Yemen arrests three suspected Qaeda militants

Friday, January 8, 2010

Yemen arrests three suspected Qaeda militants

Yemeni forces carried out two air raids on jihadists last month

All eyes on Yemen after failed terror attack.Believe Abdullah Mutabal,failed suicide attemp on US airline, came here to study language and later trained in terrorists skills.

A woman walks by two Yemeni soldiers at a checkpoint in Sanaa, the capital. Yemen's deputy prime minister for security and defense said at a news conference that the Nigerian accused in the attempted airliner bombing over Detroit likely met with Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi

Yemeni security forces have arrested three suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including two leading members, in the province of Marib, the interior ministry said on Friday.

A statement on the ministry website said security forces chasing Al-Qaeda militants in the province on Thursday arrested a 25-year-old man, identified only as WJ, who is suspected of being a member of the group.

It added that security forces last month arrested "two prominent leaders" of Al-Qaeda in the same province, east of Sanaa.

Mubarak Hadi al-Shabwani and Mansur Saleh Dalil, described as Al-Qaeda leaders, were arrested on December 14 following an operation against the network in the province, the statement added.

An official told AFP on Friday the arrests took place following clashes between security forces and militants in which five security men were killed.

Counter-terrorism units had also tried to arrest the suspected Al-Qaeda leader in the province, Ayedh al-Shabwani, but he managed to flee, said the source.

Yemeni security forces insist they are winning the war against the jihadists, pointing to two separate air raids in December that killed more than 60 suspected Al-Qaeda members.

On Wednesday, Yemeni officials announced the capture of key Qaeda leader Mohammed al-Hanq and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa that caused embassies to close for several days.

The arrest came after clashes two days earlier in which two members of Al-Qaeda were killed.

The interior ministry had said its security forces were repeatedly raiding hideouts of "terrorist elements" in several provinces and had turned their "fight against terrorism into a daily confrontation."

On December 24, Yemeni warplanes struck Wadi Rafadh, in Shabwa province, about 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of Sanaa. Officials said 34 suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed.

Long-standing concerns that Yemen has become a haven for Islamic extremism were thrown into sharp focus when a Nigerian man allegedly trained in Yemen was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jet.

The botched Christmas Day attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which also urged attacks on Western interests in Yemen.

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