Suspect may have al-Qaeda ties
Posted on 01/01/2003 5:14:26 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Suspect may have al-Qaeda ties
U.S. joins search for those behind missionaries' deaths
01/01/2003
JIBLA, Yemen - Yemeni interrogators suspect that the man accused of killing three American missionaries at a Baptist hospital may have ties to al-Qaeda, officials said Tuesday, and U.S. investigators joined the search for those behind the murders.
Two of the slain Americans were buried Tuesday in the southern Yemeni town of Jibla, where each had worked for more than two decades and where the attack took place. The body of the third was to be flown to the United States.
The sole survivor of Monday's shootings, pharmacist Donald W. Caswell, 49, of Levelland, Texas, left the hospital Tuesday after recovering from abdominal wounds, a U.S. diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
An FBI team arrived Monday in Jibla and worked overnight. The U.S. diplomat would not say whether U.S. investigators were being allowed to directly question the suspect arrested in the slayings but said the Americans "are very close" to the interrogation.
In past investigations of attacks on Americans here, Americans working alongside Yemenis have complained of having limited access to suspects.
The U.S. Embassy said it was too early to tell whether terrorism was behind the shootings. But Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal included the slayings in a list of terrorist acts he presented to Parliament later in the day.
Mr. Bajammal accused "extremist elements in several [Yemeni] parties of having links with al-Qaeda." He did not elaborate.
Officials close to the investigation said Yemeni interrogators have strong suspicions that the accused gunman has connections to Osama bin Laden's terror network. Yemen is Mr. bin Laden's ancestral homeland and has been a fertile recruiting ground for him.
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