SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in remarks published yesterday that an Al Qaeda cell dismantled by security forces in south-eastern Yemen had plotted terrorist attacks in his country and neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
Saleh was quoted by state newspapers as saying Yemeni police had seized documents containing “dangerous information unveiling a plan by the Al Qaeda organisation to carry out terrorist acts in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.”
He reportedly made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz late on Tuesday.
Authorities said on Tuesday that a leading member of Al Qaeda in Yemen was killed in a gun battle the previous day between police and Al Qaeda suspects holed up in a hideout in the south-eastern province of Hadramout.
Official sources said Hamza al-Quaiti, a suspected mastermind of several terror attacks in Yemen in recent months, was among five Al Qaeda suspects killed in the shootout in Tarim town, Hadramout.
Two suspects were injured in the firefight and arrested by police.
Two police officers were killed in the clash.
The shootout erupted as police forces raided a house sheltering the suspects in Tarim, which is located some 900km south-east of the capital Sanaa.
The defence ministry on its website quoted unnamed official sources as saying police seized a cache of explosives, including 40 bags of gunpowder, explosive devices, hand grenades, machine guns and gas cylinders.
l A group of armed tribesmen released a French engineer of Algerian origin yesterday after holding him hostage for one day in south-eastern Yemen to press for the release of jailed fellow clansmen, local officials said.
The officials said the hostage’s release was secured by a mediation led by tribal figures and local officials in Shabwa.
The engineer, who works for a giant gas exporting project, was taken at gunpoint from the Habban area about 40km from Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa.
“The engineer was handed over to tribal dignitaries, and he is safe and sound,” a local official said, asking not to be named.
He said the man was released along with four bodyguards after the abductors, who belong to the Laqmoush tribe, received pledges from officials that they would release three clansmen being detained in neighbouring Hadramout province over a land dispute. - DPA |
