SANAA, 20 March 2004 — Yemeni security forces yesterday captured two of the main suspects in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden port, an Interior Ministry official said, quoted by SABA news agency.
The pair, Jamal Al-Badawi, alias Abu Abderrahman, and Fahd Al-Qasaa, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Hazifa, were detained early yesterday in the southern province of Abyan, nearly a year after they escaped from a prison in Aden, the official said.
They were detained after a shootout with security forces who tried to stop their car on the Abyan-Shabwa road.
Both were wounded and are being kept under surveillance in hospital, the official added.
The two men were among 10 Yemeni suspects who escaped from jail last April. They had been awaiting trial for alleged involvement in the attack on the US destroyer in Aden harbor that killed 17 US sailors and wounded 38.
A security source said on Tuesday that two other suspects in the Cole bombing who were among the 10 escapees had surrendered to authorities in Abyan while a third suspect was arrested.
The announcement of yesterday’s arrests would leave only one of the 10 escapees still on the run. The Interior Ministry had offered $60,000 as a reward for information leading to the arrest of the group.
Yemeni security forces earlier this month launched a hunt for extremists in Abyan and local officials said 18 suspected members of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic Jihad group had been netted.
Other suspects were still hiding in the region’s rugged Jebel Thira mountains to which access is difficult, the officials said, adding that the fugitives had been given an extended ultimatum to surrender.
Yemen has cracked down on Al-Qaeda militants after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
