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Yemen Arrests French National for Al-Qaida Links

   VOA News 06 June 2010

   Yemeni  security  officials  say  authorities  have  arrested a French
   national on suspicion of having links to al-Qaida.

   Officials  said  Sunday  authorities  detained Jeremy Johnny Witter in
   late May in the capital, Sanaa.

   Investigators  say  he  was studying at the Sanaa Institute for Arabic
   Language  -  the  same  school attended by a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk
   Abdulmutallab,  arrested  for  trying  to  blow  up a U.S. airliner on
   Christmas Day (December 25).

   Yemeni  authorities have arrested dozens of foreigners on suspicion of
   al-Qaida  links  since  the failed Christmas Day bombing, including at
   least one American and one Briton.

   Yemen  intensified  its  campaign  against  al-Qaida after the group's
   local   branch,   al-Qaida   in   the   Arabian   Peninsula,   claimed
   responsibility for the failed bombing.

   On Saturday, Yemeni officials said suspected al-Qaida members killed a
   senior  army  officer  and at least one other person in eastern Maarib
   province.

   The officials say gunmen ambushed the convoy of Colonel Mohammed Saleh
   al-Shaief  as  he  traveled in the troubled province where al-Qaida is
   active.

   Also  Saturday,  a  security source said an al-Qaida member on Yemen's
   wanted list, Ghaleb al-Zaydi, surrendered to authorities in Maarib.

   In late May, a government airstrike targeting an al-Qaida operative in
   Maarib  instead  killed  a  provincial  official, touching off revenge
   attacks by his kinsmen.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

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