YEMEN: Yemen has arrested four suspects and seized explosives the group were planning to use in attacks in the capital, Sanaa

Yemen said on Saturday (September 16) its security forces broke up an al Qaeda-linked cell that was behind foiled attacks on oil and gas installations on Friday (September 15). Interior Minister Rshad al-Alimi told reporters security forces arrested four suspects and seized explosives the group were planning to use in attacks in the capital, Sanaa. Security forces arrested the four early on Saturday after a seven-hour siege in Sanaa, during which the suspects hurled hand grenades, Alimi said. "We have arrested Al Qaeda-linked cell on Saturday who were believed to be planning to carry out attacks in the capital. The suspects also had links to the four suicide bombers, who had planned to blow up Yemeni oil installations on Friday but were killed as the attack was foiled," said Alimi. He said all arrested suspects were Yemeni nationals, but did not give details on nationalities of the four bombers killed in the attacks that came days ahead of presidential and local elections on Sept. 20. President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier set a bounty of 5 million rials ($25,420) for the capture of "terrorists", a day after the minor oil producer foiled two suicide attacks on its oil and gas facilities. The attackers, Saleh told an election rally, "were targeting security, stability and development in this country. Had they succeeded in (hitting) their target, that would have been a great economic crisis". The bombers were killed when security forces blew up four rigged cars at dawn on Friday before they reached their targets, oil and gas facilities in the eastern provinces of Marib and Hadarmout. A guard was also killed, a worker with Canadian oil company Nexen Inc. Diplomats say powerful tribal leaders in mountain areas outside government control give shelter to militants, some of whom fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

ITN Source | September 17, 2006

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