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Nicaragua on Alert for al-Qaida Suspects
 El Salvador and Nicaragua said Tuesday they were on the alert for two al-Qaida terror suspects, but U.S. and Interpol officials downplayed the reports. Officials in El Salvador and Nicaragua said they were on the lookout for a Yemeni man known only as Altuwiti and Ahmed Salim Swedan, a 36-year-old Kenyan on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists. But they said there was no evidence that the suspected al-Qaida figures were within their borders. Salvadoran Immigration Department spokesman Ramon Hernandez said there was no evidence they were even in Central America. U.S. Homeland Security official Marc A. Raimondi said the agency "has no hard information at this time about the whereabouts of these individuals." Angel Miguel Barquero, in charge of Interpol in San Salvador, said no new warnings had been issued recently on the two men. Nicaragua's Interior Ministry, which is in charge of internal security, announced earlier Tuesday that it had alerted all border posts because the two suspected terrorists were "possibly" in Central America. Nicaraguan Deputy Interior Minister Avil Ramirez said his country received the report from El Salvador, the only Latin American nation with troops in Iraq and which in the past has received al-Qaida-type threats. Posted by: Fred 2005-05-25 |
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