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Yemen Pursues Hunt for Bin Laden Fighters After 17 Killed
SANAA, Dec. 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hundreds of Yemeni forces pursued a search operation for fighters from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network Wednesday, a day after 17 people died in a battle, tribal and government sources said.
"They are still looking for these people," a ministry of interior official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding a warning to Yemenis not to harbor the suspects.
"Police and army forces backed by helicopters are sill hunting the suspects. It is not easy, these are tribal areas," he said after Washington quietly applauded the Yemeni efforts.
A senior tribal source said 13 government troops and four tribesmen died Tuesday when army and police units fired mortars into Al-Hosun village in the Marib province, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, igniting a gun and tank battle.
Another 18 soldiers and seven tribesmen were wounded and taken to Sanaa for treatment, he said.
Four army vehicles were destroyed in the shooting, the tribal source added.
A military sweep has been taking place for the last two weeks in the provinces of Marib, Shabwa and Al-Juf - over much of which heavily armed tribes hold sway - in search of three Yemenis believed to be ranking members of al-Qaeda, official sources said, AFP reported.
One of them, known as Bin Thanian, arrived in al-Hosun overnight accompanied by his family and with government troops on his tail, according to a local dignitary.
But he managed to escape from the village and was on the run in Shabwa, the dignitary said.
The authorities were still negotiating with the Abeideh tribe - who control the plains village near the town of Marib - to search several houses, tribal sources said.
Police officially confirmed Tuesday's gun battle, saying in a communiqué that some people were dead and injured and that several people who had sheltered suspects had been arrested in the Bahyan region east of Marib city.
In Washington, senior State Department officials privately confirmed that Yemen had been provided with a list of "individuals and groups" connected with bin Laden to be moved against, the British daily
The Independent reported.
Yemen has been identified by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a potential target, along with Somalia and Sudan, as the U.S. continues to try to weed out al-Qaeda operatives outside Afghanistan.
The U.S. has long identified Yemen - the birthplace of bin Laden's father - as a country with al-Qaeda cells. The network is thought to be responsible for the bomb attack on the USS Cole while it was docked at the southern Yemeni port of Aden in October last year, in which 17 U.S. sailors died.
Yemeni officials said Tuesday's operation was likely related to the list presented to Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh on November 27 while meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher noted that Saleh had "made a strong commitment against terrorism" during his visit to the United States.
"It is clear that he intends to go after terrorism, that he is committed to the fight against terrorism," Boucher said.
"We welcomed that, we offered our support, we offered our cooperation [and] we'll continue to work with them in the overall fight."
Saleh has implied that Yemen, where tribesmen routinely carry arms, could be a target in the U.S.-led war against terror and said Sanaa was closely watching two or three suspected members of al-Qaeda.
Many al-Qaeda members are reportedly on the run from Afghanistan after U.S.-backed Afghan opposition forces routed the Taliban regime which sheltered Arab fighters and bin Laden, who is wanted for the September 11 deadly attacks on the United States.
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