SANAA, 25 June 2003 — Yemen arrested four armed men yesterday during a massive siege of hideouts of suspected militants blamed for an attack on an army medical team earlier this week.
“There are still about 80 extremists surrounded in an area of a 3 km (1.9 mile) radius,” a police source told news agencies, adding that authorities expected them to surrender when food and water supplies run out.
Hundreds of Yemeni troops backed by tanks and helicopters launched an operation in a rugged area in the remote mountainous Sarar area in the southern Abyan province to net the fugitive extremists.
The sweep unfolding in Jabal Hatat, 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Aden, was reportedly being led by Defense Minister Gen. Abdullah Ali Eleiwah himself.
The assault is aimed at netting the group accused of having launched Saturday’s attack on an army medical convoy that left seven wounded, a military official told journalists at the scene.
The extremists hidden out in the rugged and largely inaccessible region comprise elements from the Islamic Jihad group and the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan, as well as Al-Qaeda sympathizers, the official said.
The deployed military detachment, made up of hundreds of soldiers, is backed up by dozens of tanks, artillery, heavy machine-guns and helicopters.
Yemeni authorities have boosted security around Sanaa and other main cities in recent days for fear of attacks by militant groups.
Tribal elders in the region have begun mediation efforts to convince the group to surrender and thus avoid a bloodbath, witnesses said.
On Saturday, a Yemeni Army medic, his five assistants and their driver were injured when gunmen opened fire on their car as it was passing through Sarar on their way to carry out what authorities described as “humanitarian work”.
The following siege was the latest offensive in a crackdown on militants by Yemen, scene of several attacks on Western targets, including the 2000 bombing of the US warship Cole and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg.
The police source said the attackers were believed to be led by Ahmad Abdulnabi, a Yemeni who returned from Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The Yemenis detained yesterday denied any involvement in Saturday’s attack. They said they only worked on the farm of Abdulnabi, who required them to be armed, the source said.
