11-member Al Qaida sleeper cell discovered in Yemen capital

Yemeni authorities have discovered and detainedan 11-member terrorist cell here belonging to the Al Qaida organisation, official sources said yesterday.

"Investigations are now going on with the 11 men who form the majority of the cell," a state-run newspaper quoted a security official as saying.

The official added that the concerned bodies were making contacts with some neighbouring countries in the region for arresting some other wanted elements belonging to the same cell.

He said Saudi Arabia had detained a "dangerous element who is affiliated to the cell and that Yemen is waiting for his extradition, within the security cooperation between the two countries.

The detention of this element came after intelligence information from the Yemeni side to Saudi side, he added.

A Yemeni security delegation is currently visiting Saudi Arabia with the objective of exchanging information.

In the meantime, Yemen security forces in cooperation with the coastguards detained over the last few days more than 100 Somalis while trying to infiltrate into the country via the sea, according to official sources.

The sources added seven of them were AIDS-infected and that arrangements were made to deport them with others being transferred to the Kharaz refugee camp south of Yemen.

The source made it clear that Yemeni authorities held during this year 10,882 infiltrators, 9,978 of them Somali nationals, while the remaining 904 were Ethiopians.

On his part, Khaled Fansah, legal consultant for the UN High Commission for Refugees, said 47,000 Somali refugees were registered over the period from May 2000 to May 2003.