SANAA: Yemeni security forces stormed an Al-Qaeda hide-out Wednesday in a militant stronghold in the country’s west, setting off clashes, officials said, as a security chief vowed to fight the group’s powerful local branch until it was eliminated.
A government statement said at least one suspected Al-Qaeda member was arrested during the fighting in Hudaydah province. The province, along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, was home to most of the assailants in a bombing and shooting attack outside the US Embassy in 2008 that killed 10 Yemeni guards and four civilians.
“The (Interior) Ministry will continue tracking down Al-Qaeda terrorists and will continue its strikes against the group until it is totally eliminated,” said Deputy Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Saleh Al-Zawari.
He was speaking to senior military officials at a meeting in Mareb, one of three provinces where Al-Qaeda militants are believed to have taken shelter.
The group’s growing presence in Yemen has drawn attention with the attempted attack on a US airliner on Friday. US investigators say the Nigerian suspect in the attack told them that he received training and instructions from Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
A security official who gave more details on Wednesday’s raid said it resulted from a tip-off and targeted a home eight kilometers north of the Bajil district. He said one suspected Al-Qaeda member was injured and several who fled were being pursued.
The owner of the home, a sympathizer of the group, was arrested, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
More details surfaced Wednesday on the Nigerian man suspected in Friday’s attempted airliner attack. While in Yemen, he led a devout Islamic life, shunning TV and music and avoiding women, said students and staff at an institute where he studied Arabic.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab spent two periods in Yemen, from 2004-2005 and from August to December of this year, just before the attempted attack, Yemeni officials have said.
Administrators at the institute said Wednesday he was enrolled at the school during both periods to study Arabic.
Abdulmutallab showed little interest in study during his brief time at the Sanaa Institute for the Arabic Language this year, which coincided with Ramadan that began in late August.
“When I asked him why he wasn’t studying, he would tell me he wanted to devote his time for worship during Ramadan,” Ahmed Hassan, a 28-year-old Arabic language student from Singapore, said on Wednesday.
Hassan said he was stunned when he heard reports that Abdulmutallab, 23, told US officials after his arrest he received training and instructions from Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen. He said he never suspected the Nigerian of belonging to the terrorist network.
Yemen issued Abdulmutallab a visa to study Arabic. Yemeni officials have said authorities in Yemen were reassured that he had visas from a number of countries engaged in the fight against terrorism, including the United States.
Staff and students at the institute said Abdulmutallab spent at most one month at the school. That has raised questions about what he did during the rest of his stay, which continued into December.
