Yemeni police arrested an al-Qaeda suspect on Monday, one day after a mortar attack against a housing complex for US citizens and other Westerners in the capital Sana'a, a security source said. The source, quoted by a web site run by the Defence Ministry, said Abdullah al-Raimi was arrested in Sana'a. The unnamed source described al-Raimi as "one of the dangerous al-Qaeda members."He said al-Raimi was "suspected to have been involved in several terrorist operations against Yemen recently." It was not clear from the source's remarks whether al-Raimi was linked to Sunday's mortar attack on the residential complex.
Al-Raimi was among 23 al-Qaeda operatives who escaped from a heavily-guarded intelligence jail in Sana'a in February 2006. He had been serving a 4-year jail sentence handed down by a state security court in 2005. The men tunnelled their way out of the prison in a mass escape that embarrassed the Yemeni government and dealt a major blow to its efforts to pursue supporters of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Earlier Monday, a government official said an al-Qaeda wing in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the Sunday's attack.