SANAA (AFP) — A Saudi wanted by the Yemeni authorities on suspicion of plotting attacks for Al-Qaeda has turned himself in, a security official said on Thursday.
Naif Dahis Yahia al-Harbi is suspected of "belonging to a cell that was planning attacks in Yemen," the official said, asking not to be identified.
The news follows the announcement by the defence ministry website on Sunday of the capture of Al-Qaeda's main financier in the Arabian peninsula.
"The arrested man is named Hassan Hussein bin Alwan, a Saudi national, and he is the financier for attacks launched by Al-Qaeda organisation in Yemen and Saudi Arabia," the website quoted a security official as saying.
The arrest last week led to the dismantling of an Al-Qaeda cell that was operating in the capital Sanaa and Marib province to its east, an interior ministry official told AFP.
The ancestral land of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Yemen has witnessed a series of attacks claimed by the organisation in recent years against foreign embassies, tourist sites and oil installations.
In January, the Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen announced in a video message posted on the Internet that it was merging with the Saudi branch to form "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," led by a Yemeni, Nasser al-Wahaishi.
Saudi Arabia and Yemen have exchanged dozens of suspected militants in recent years under the terms of a 2003 security pact that strengthened an extradition treaty first signed in 1998.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
