Yemen Says It Nabs Top Al Qaeda Man, Surrounds Others

reuters international ^ | 3/3/04

[knak]

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's security forces have arrested a Yemeni believed to be a senior al Qaeda member after surrounding a group of Islamic militants in a remote region, a government official said Wednesday.

"Security forces have captured a Yemeni man believed to be an important member of al Qaeda," the official told Reuters. "They are still surrounding the others."

Officials declined to say whether Imam al-Sherif, a prominent Egyptian militant, was among those surrounded in the mountainous region in the southern Abyan province.

Sherif set up the Jihad group which Osama bin Laden's right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahri once headed. Some local media said he may be the man in police custody.

Local officials said the militants tried to set ablaze a mixed school, deeming the education of boys alongside girls as un-Islamic. Residents of the town of Lodar said security forces had spread out throughout the area, setting up security checkpoints.

Many Egyptian militants who fought the Soviet army in Afghanistan settled in Yemen during the 1990s.

Yemen has been battling militants since the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities focused attention on extremists in the impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian peninsula.

It is the ancestral home of bin Laden, whose al Qaeda group Washington blames for the attacks.

[anniegetyourgun]

Hoping....

[Sacajaweau]

>< = Crossing my fingers that it's a real big boy..about 6-4

[Oldeconomybuyer]

bump

[Cap Huff]

FYI

[Khan Noonian Singh]

Osama bin Laden's family compound in Hadramawt, Yemen

[Cap Huff]

Here's a name on the guy nabbed:

Al-Qaeda leader arrested

March 4, 2004 - 6:04PM

Security forces in Yemen have arrested a top al-Qaeda leader during a hunt for Islamic extremists in the southern province of Abyan, local officials said today.

"A senior official of al-Qaeda in Yemen who was wanted by the police was arrested Wednesday night," in the Lawder area, one official told AFP, naming the man as Abdul Rauf Nassib.

Security forces backed by helicopters and armoured vehicles were deployed yesterday in the area where they surrounded "about a dozen" suspected Islamic extremists.

- AFP

This story was found at:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/04/1078378901943.html

[Cap Huff]

Kattracks posted more recent and more detailed info here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1090422/posts