Yemen says arrests 8 Qaeda-linked arms smugglers

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

SANAA, Oct 29 (Reuters) Yemeni security forces have arrested eight foreigners with suspected links to al Qaeda who were smuggling weapons from Yemen to Somalia, a senior Interior Ministry official said today.

The state-run September 26 Web site (www.26sep.net) said the group comprised 3 Australians, one Dane, one Briton, one German, one Somali and one European whose nationality was not disclosed.

Earlier the official news agency Saba, quoting an Interior Ministry official, said four of the suspects were Australian.

''The eight foreigners were arrested because they smuggled weapons to Somalia from Yemen,'' Saba reported. ''Preliminary investigations indicate that they are members of al Qaeda.'' Government sources in the Yemeni capital told Reuters that all eight had converted to Islam earlier this year and received religious instruction in Yemen.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had been informed by Yemen that three Australians had been detained.

''They have confirmed that they arrested three Australians, but at this stage have not provided any further information,'' spokesman Scott Bolitho told Reuters.

''Our embassy in Riyadh is seeking access to those detained, with assistance from the British Commission in Yemen.'' Last month, Yemen said it had broken up an al Qaeda-linked cell that was behind foiled attacks on oil and gas installations.

Yemen, a minor oil producer, is the ancestral home of the family of al Qaeda's Saudi-born leader Osama bin Laden.

Attacks in Yemen, which has been battling militancy for years, include the suicide bombing in 2000 of the U.S. warship Cole, which killed 17 U.S. sailors, and the bombing of the French oil supertanker Limburg off the coast in 2002, for which al Qaeda claimed responsibility.

REUTERS AD RN1937

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