SANAA, 5 March 2004 — Yemeni security forces have arrested two leading Al-Qaeda members in a raid on rugged mountainous strongholds of Islamic militant fighters, government officials said yesterday.
Egyptian Sayed Imam Al-Sharif and Yemeni Abdul Rauf Nassib were captured late on Wednesday in the Lawdar district of Abyan province, roughly 400 km southeast of the capital, the officials said.
Al-Sharif was reportedly the founder of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad militant group. He moved to Yemen in 1996 after turning leadership of the group over to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, now Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader.
Islamist sources said Nassib was a main Al-Qaeda operative in Yemen and that he was the only survivor of an attack by an unmanned CIA plane in eastern Yemen in April 2002. Yemen’s Al-Qaeda leader at the time, Ali Qaed Senyyan Al-Harthi, was killed in the drone attack.
The arrests took place as part of an ongoing crackdown on mountainous hideouts of militants in Abyan, where security and military forces are carrying out an extensive manhunt for militants blamed for attacks on local officials and a co-ed school.
Backed by army units and military helicopters, anti-terror police squads have sealed off Lawdar district, where the suspects are believed to be hiding, a senior provincial official told Arab News.
Local residents put the number of surrounded men between 150 and 200.
Officials said they gave the militants a 48-hour ultimatum to surrender or face a massive military offensive.
Meanwhile Yemeni Chief of Staff Gen. Mohammad Ali Al-Qasmi confirmed that Saudi-Yemeni joint military, security and technical teams will begin field visits to border regions at the beginning of the week.
