Yemen Holds 85 al-Qaida Suspects

31/05/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: No Details on Charges Leveled at Some Suspects ||Yemeni Officials Back From Guantanamo Bay, Cuba||No Terrorist Groups Linked to Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Al-Ahmar||STORY: Yemen is holding 85 detainees suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, the country's state-run news agency reported Thursday.

The SABA news agency quoted an unnamed security source that said some of those being held are also suspected of links to the Yemeni Islamic Jihad movement. The source said the suspects were being questioned and that some of them are accused of carrying out illegal acts. The report did not elaborate.

A team of Yemeni officials returned from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Wednesday after interviewing 69 Yemenis who are among hundreds of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters being held at a U.S. military facility there, the 26 September newspaper reported Thursday. (Read photo caption)

There were no further details and team members were not immediately available for comment.

On Wednesday, the leader of the Islamic opposition party, Sheik Abdullah al-Ahmar, said in an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, that detainees in Yemen numbered hundreds or maybe thousands.

But al-Ahmar was also quoted as saying that there were no terrorist groups in Yemen linked to al-Qaida "because we are a society that condemns terrorism and rejects extremism."

Yemen is thought to be the home of hundreds of Arabs who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan and then returned to the poor and lawless nation on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

The United States has tried to get Yemen to cooperate on anti-terrorism since the USS Cole was bombed in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors in October 2000.

Yemen committed itself to joining the war on terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks and has allowed U.S. forces to enter the country and train its military.

PHOTO CAPTION

Yemen Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi looks on as Secretary of State Colin Powell answers a reporter's question outside the State Department in Washington Wednesday, May 29, 2002 after their meeting. Planning is going ahead for an international peace conference this summer, but the precise timing is still uncertain, Powell said in a brief exchange with reporters after he met with the foreign minister, who renewed a pledge help the United States counter terrorism. (AP Photo/Joe Marquette)