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Yemen arrests 'terrorist' over US plot

From correspondents in Sanaa
September 19, 2006

YEMENI President Ali Abdallah Saleh announced Tuesday the arrest of a "terrorist" - allegedly linked to his main election rival and to Osama bin Laden - accused of plotting attacks against US interests.

"We have arrested a major terrorist who was planning operations against American installations and the Movenpick hotel," Mr Saleh said at a press conference on the eve of the presidential poll.

He said the suspect was a bodygard for Faisal bin Shamlan, his main challenger in Wednesday's presidential race.

Mr Saleh's private secretary Abdo Burji said the suspect, Hussein al-Jerdani, was arrested on Sunday and had close links with the al-Qaeda terror chief.

"He was a companion of Osama bin Laden and is the owner of a house rented to a cell which recently tried to launch attacks against oil installations in Yemen," Mr Burji said.

Four bombers and a security guard were killed Friday when Yemeni security forces foiled twin suicide bombings against an oil refinery in Maarib, in the desert east of the capital Sanaa, and a Canadian-run terminal in the port of Dhabba on the Gulf of Aden.

The Government announced Saturday the arrest of four Yemeni "terrorists" linked to Al-Qaeda who it said was planning attacks on Sanaa.

Friday's attacks came after bin Laden's right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri warned that the Gulf and Israel would be the next targets of Al-Qaeda, in a video message coinciding with the fifth anniversary Monday of the September 11 attacks on the US.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of bin Laden, and in October 2000, 17 US sailors were killed when suicide bombers aboard a small boat attacked the destroyer USS Cole off the southern port of Aden in an attack claimed by the militant network.

Since September 11, Sanaa has worked with Washington to clamp down on suspected al-Qaeda sympathisers.

Yemen's veteran head of state is virtually certain to win the presidential poll in which he faces four challengers, with Mr bin Shamlan his greatest rival.

The 64-year-old field marshal has been at the helm since 1978, first as president of the then North Yemen and later as leader of the unified state after north and south merged in May 1990.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20441071-1702,00.html