Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced on Monday the dismantling of a “terrorist cell” which he said was linked to Israeli intelligence services.
Saleh gave no details but sources close to the investigation said he was apparently referring to a six-member cell arrested on suspicion of involvement in a deadly attack against the US embassy in the Yemeni capital last month.
“A terrorist cell was arrested five days ago and will be referred to the judicial authorities for its links with the Israeli intelligence services,” Saleh was quoted as saying by the official Saba news agency.
He said the group operated under the “slogan of Islam.”
The Yemeni president made the statement during a meeting with politicians, tribal leaders, security and military officials at Al-Mukalla University in the southeastern province of Hadramawt.
Saleh did not say how many people were arrested or detail his allegation that the cell was linked to Israeli intelligence.
“Details of the trial will be announced later,” he told the gathering.
“You will hear about what goes on in the proceedings,” Saleh said, urging Yemen’s political parties to close ranks and cooperate to confront acts of terrorism, Saba reported.
Although Saleh said the group was arrested five days ago, sources close to the investigation said he is believed to have been referring to six men rounded up in Sanaa after the Sept. 17 attack on the US embassy which left 18 people dead.
Militants detonated a booby-trapped car before firing a volley of rockets at the heavily fortified embassy in the second attack targeting the mission since April.
The interior ministry said on Sept. 22 that security forces were holding six key suspects over the attack, including an Islamist militant who claimed responsibility for the strike.
“Security services succeeded in arresting six people, some of whom belong to Islamic Jihad, linked to al-Qaeda and which claimed the attack,” the ministry said in a statement.
“One of these people answers to the name of Abu Ghaith al-Yamani, who signed a statement claiming the attack,” the ministry said.
The ministry said a total of 50 people were arrested in connection with the attack, in which six assailants were killed.
In Jerusalem, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry called Saleh’s accusations “totally ridiculous.”
“To believe that Israel would create Islamist cells in Yemen is really far-fetched. This is yet another victory for the proponents of conspiracy theories,” Igal Palmor said.
In August, Yemeni security forces arrested five suspected al-Qaeda militants in Hadramawt, days after the authorities revealed they had uncovered a new “terrorist” cell near the port city of Al-Mukalla.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS