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Posted on 04/13/2003 7:59:22 PM PDT by blam
Police held for al-Qaida escape
Reuters
Monday April 14, 2003
The Guardian (UK)
Yemen was questioning two senior secret-police officers yesterday after 10 al-Qaida suspects, including two linked to the suicide bombing of the American warship USS Cole, escaped from a Yemeni jail, an official said. "Two senior officials of the Political Security Organisation in Aden have been detained for questioning," said a government official in the capital, Sanaa.
Jamal al-Badawi, the main suspect, arrested after the attack in October 2000, plus a suspected accomplice and eight men held for allegedly belonging to al-Qaida, escaped after drilling a hole in a bathroom wall at the high-security jail on Friday.
Police also arrested various friends and relatives of the fugitives and are said to be interrogating guards at the prison in the port of Aden.
Security forces are now carrying out a manhunt in south Yemen, and newspapers have published photographs of the 10 men. Officials promised a "generous reward" to anyone helping to catch the fugitives.
Badawi was arrested after the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, which killed 17 American sailors. In the attack, two men on a boat laden with 225kg of high explosives rammed the guided-missile destroyer as it was refuelling.
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