|
Jugged Yemeni al-Qaeda linked to the Cole boom
How many hundreds of al-Qaeda does it take to blow up a warship? I donât mean to make light of the attack, but it seems like every jihadi who gets jugged in Yemen was involved in it ...Four of 32 militants captured in a crackdown by Yemenâs security forces are linked to the October 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors, an official said Tuesday. The four were among 10 suspects who escaped from prison early last year, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Senior al-Qaida agents Abdul Raouf Naseeb and Sayed Imam el-Sharif were among those captured, but the countryâs most-wanted man - Jamal al-Badawi - apparently slipped away with more than a dozen foreign fighters, witnesses and officials in the region said. A U.S. government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Naseeb was believed to be linked to the Cole attack. The official had no information about the others. The Yemeni official said Naseeb and four other suspects had been transferred to San`a for further questioning. There was no information on el-Sharif. The official said 13 of the 32 suspects were released after they and their families promised to renounce violence. Eh? Sixteen fighters from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates who were thought to be hiding in the mountains are believed to have slipped away, including al-Badawi, a Yemeni wanted in the United States and by his own government for the Cole bombing. The crackdown, which ended Tuesday, followed reports of planned attacks in Yemen. Security has been tightened around embassies, foreign companies and government institutions in San`a, the capital. Might I suggest that such things might not be needed if they held on to the jihadis when they caught them the first time? This ainât hide and go seek, folks ... Witnesses said military checkpoints around the mountains had been reduced and patrols were no longer visible - an indication the operation was over. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=27790 |