SANAA, 25 July 2003 — Saudi Arabia and Yemen yesterday exchanged 15 suspects wanted on criminal and terrorism charges, police officials said.

Riyadh sent back eight Yemeni fugitives to Sanaa, including five suspected of involvement in an attack on a US destroyer more than two years ago and last year’s bombing of a French oil supertanker off Yemen, the officials, who asked not to be identified, told Arab News.

The extradition of the Yemenis was part of a security swap in which Sanaa handed over seven Saudis wanted by Saudi police on “criminal and terrorist charges,” one official said.

Two of the eight Yemenis were wanted for suspicious connections with the October 2000 suicide attack against the USS Cole destroyer in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, the officials said. The attack left 17 US Marines dead. Three others were suspected to have links to last October’s bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg off the southeastern Yemeni coast.

A Saudi Arabian Airlines plane carried the Yemeni suspects to Sanaa and flew back with the seven wanted Saudis on board, security officials at Sanaa International Airport said. They declined to identify the suspects.