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| Arabia | |
| Yemen arrests six for planning Qaeda attacks | |
| 2009-03-26 | |
| Yemeni authorities arrested on Wednesday six suspected al-Qaeda members suspected of planning a dozen attacks on oil installations, foreign targets and tourists in the Arab country, the Interior Ministry reported. Violence in Yemen has affected Western and other foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector. Attacks on foreigners, including kidnappings by tribesmen, also hit the tourism industry in the country. "Security bodies succeeded in detaining six terrorist elements who had been assigned to carry out the terrorist plans," according to statement on the ministry's web site, adding that other suspects were still being hunted.
"Al-Qaeda's criminal plans (consisted of) 12 terror actions against oil installations, interests of friendly countries in Yemen and foreign tourists." The bombings followed calls by Qaeda leaders' regional wing to attack non-Muslim foreigners in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. The government of Yemen, which hosts tens of thousands of Somali refugees, has also faced an insurgency in the north, riots over unemployment and the potentially disastrous economic impact of dwindling water and oil reserves. Analysts say Yemen's multiple challenges put it in danger of becoming a "failed state" whose problems could spill into neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, which has been fighting its own campaign against Qaeda. | |
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