SANAA, 10 October 2003 — Saudi authorities are holding a Yemeni terror suspect believed to be a member of an Al-Qaeda cell uncovered in Sanaa recently, Yemeni security sources said yesterday.
The 26 September Weekly newspaper, an organ of the Yemeni Defense Ministry, quoted police sources here as saying that Saudi security authorities had captured recently “a dangerous element wanted in security cases in Yemen.”
The suspect “was part of a terror network that has been apprehended by police in the Kingdom recently,” the paper said.
The unidentified terror suspect belonged to a Yemeni Al-Qaeda cell captured in Sanaa over the past few days, the sources told the paper, adding that 11 members of the cell were being investigated as contacts with Arab countries were under way to arrest other members.
A Yemeni police official told Arab News yesterday that security forces had raided a Sanaa house used by the suspects and seized documents showing plans to stage attacks against Western interests in Yemen.
“Security forces seized documents and laser disks containing detailed plans of attacks against Western targets,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The paper said that a delegation from the Yemeni Interior Ministry is in the Kingdom on a visit aimed at “exchanging information between specialists of the security apparatuses in the two brotherly countries.”
Saudi Arabia and Yemen in recent months have been swapping suspects wanted on terror and criminal charges.
