| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Arabia | |
| Yemen detains 19 suspected of planning attacks | |
| 2006-01-24 | |
| SANAA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Yemen has detained 19 people on suspicion of planning attacks against Westerners on the orders of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a state-run Web site said on Tuesday. The September 26 site (www.26sep.net) quoted government sources as saying those held would be questioned before possibly standing trial for planning "sabotage and terrorist attacks" in the port of Aden. "Several members of the group had returned from Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi told them to go back to Yemen and carry out terrorist attacks, including killing American citizens," the site quoted a source as saying.
It said one of the targets was the Aden Hotel and the suspects had bought arms, explosives and detonators. Yemen, the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The poor country has cracked down on al Qaeda-linked militants following attacks at home including the bombing in 2000 of the U.S. warship Cole and an attack in 2002 on the French supertanker Limburg, but some ordinary Yemenis still support al Qaeda's campaign against the West. In an audio tape earlier this month attributed to Zarqawi, he urged Muslims in countries neighbouring Iraq and in Yemen to join the insurgency against U.S. forces and Baghdad's government. Bin Laden named Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq after he pledged allegiance to the overall al Qaeda leader in 2004. | |
| Posted by:Steve |