MOTORBIKE WOULD-BE SUICIDER ARRESTED IN EASTERN YEMEN

HADRAMOUT, Jan. 30 (Saba) - A source at the Interior Ministry said
on Saturday that Hadramout police arrested an Al Qaeda element with
explosives strapped around his body.

Abdulhabib Al Shawish was arrested while on a motorbike in the
district of Khalaf, the source said.

Preliminary investigations of the arrested revealed Al Shawish had
planned to attack economic facilities in the Yemeni eastern
province, classified by national specialists in terror issues as one
of the national terror hotbeds.

The arrest of the would-be suicider came amid intensified crackdown
on Al Qaeda in Yemen following recent successful terror operations
in which dozens of Al Qaeda suspects were killed and arrested in the
north and south.

Investigations are continuing to know whether others were involved
in the terrorist attempt, the source said.

Separate from Al Qaeda, local sources in the southern province of
Lahj said Saturday they had heard an exchange of gunfire between
gunmen and police but no casualties were reported.

The sources said that earlier armed people of the fans of the
southern secessionist movement set up a checkpoint in Aljada'ah area
of Alhabilain district at the southern entry of Radfan city early in
the dawn.

Then police intervened and the shooting took place, they added.

FR