Yemen, Oman hunt Qaeda infiltrators

Up to five Al Qaeda members escaped a Yemeni prison yesterday as Omani and Yemeni security forces hunted for several other militants fleeing a military offensive in southern Yemen who crossed into Oman, Yemeni security sources said. The infiltration into Oman, which sits on one side of the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for one third of the world’s seaborne oil exports, fuelled fears that Islamist militants may try to set up a base in a region of strategic importance for the US. “A limited number of Al Qaeda elements managed to cross the border line to Oman in recent days,” a Yemeni source said. “Both sides are co-ordinating at the level of the border guards and the intelligence service to pursue and capture them.” An Omani foreign ministry official, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, told the newspaper Oman that his country was hunting infiltrators from Yemen, but he said no arrests had been made. Separately, in the northern Yemeni province of Hodeidah, at least 23 inmates, including a number of Al Qaeda operatives, fled prison, a security official said. “They dug a tunnel from their cell leading to a nearby graveyard,” the official, who asked not to be named, said. Saba state news agency said five militants had fled the prison. Saudi Arabia fought a militant insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which Al Qaeda members killed dozens of people in attacks on foreign workers and on government facilities. Many of the militants fled the Saudi crackdown and regrouped to set up a base in Yemen. Ansar Al Shariah, an offshoot of Al Qaeda, last year exploited political turmoil to capture several cities in southern Yemen, before being driven out by government forces this month who now appear to have the rebels on the run. Yemeni officials have said some militants have fled towards a province bordering Oman.