SANAA, 29 November 2002 — Yemen has asked the US to extradite a recently captured man said by Washington to be Gulf operations chief for the Al-Qaeda terror network, a Yemeni newspaper said yesterday.
Sanaa wants to question Yemeni Abderrahim Al-Nashiri about his alleged role in the October 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in the southern port of Aden that killed 17 American sailors, said the weekly September 26, mouthpiece of the Interior Ministry.
The United States, which identified Nashiri as a Saudi, announced his arrest earlier this month.
US officials did not give details on how, when or where he was captured.
One official indicated that he was seized in Kuwait, but that could not be corroborated by other sources.
Kuwaiti newspapers and security sources reported on Nov. 16 that Kuwaiti authorities had arrested a top Al-Qaeda leader in the Gulf, foiling a plot to blow up a hotel in Yemen frequented by Americans. But he was identified as Mohsen Al-Fadli.
September 26 said Nashiri, who is close to Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, was arrested in Pakistan, where he had fled shortly before the Cole attack. (AFP)
