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Arabia | ||
US fears freed Gitmo prisoners could join Qaeda | ||
2009-06-03 | ||
[Al Arabiya Latest] The United States has refused to send Yemeni "enemy combatants" held at Guantanamo Bay back to their home country over fears they could join the local al-Qaeda movement, press reports said on Tuesday.
Ninety-six of the 240 prisoners come from Yemen, the poorest and most "Yemen has become a refuge for jihadists" warned general David Petraeus, the highest ranking American military official in the Middle East. At the start of 2009. Yemen's local al-Qaeda group fused with its Saudi Arabian branch, raising fears a "new Afghanistan" would emerge in its southern frontier following suicide attacks that killed four South Korean tourists. Two of the top most wanted Saudis were arrested in March, near Taez in the South of Sanaa but there are concerns that hundreds of wanted men tracked by Riyadh have sought refuge beyond the 1,300 kilometer (about 800 miles) frontier between the neighboring countries. Le Figaro reported that in early April a cave was discovered stocked with weapons, ropes and cameras and said members of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden's family not only used Yemen as a "base for al-Qaeda operations" but also contributed to "terrorist training and the facilitation of their movements." | ||
Posted by:Fred |