AL-QAEDA RECRUITED ABDULMUTALLAB IN LONDON NOT YEMEN: SECURITY

SANA'A, Jan. 07 (Saba)- A senior Yemeni official revealed on
Thursday that Nigerian Omar Faruq Abdulmutallab, a key suspect in
the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner, was recruited to work with
al-Qaeda in the British capital London.

In a press conference, deputy Premier for Defance and Security
Affairs Rashad al-Alimi said that the ongoing investigations had
proved that Abdulmutallab was involved in al-Qaeda during his visits
to London several times.

Citing Dutch prosecutors, the Yemeni official said that
Abdulmutallab had probably obtained the explosives, which were
stitched into his underwear, in Nigeria before he arrived at
Amsterdam's Schiphol airport where he boarded the flight to Detroit.

Responsibility for the Christmas Day attack has been claimed by
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has also urged
attacks on Western interests in Yemen.

The US embassy in Yemen reopened Tuesday after a two-day closure
prompted by the Al-Qaeda threats.

The US embassy said on its website that Yemeni security forces had
addressed a "specific area of concern" in the north of the capital
Sana'a on Monday, paving the way for the reopening.

The bombing attempt triggered an overhaul of US terrorist watchlists
and added dozens more suspects to "no-fly" lists.

Al-Alimi confirmed that his country's security forces have foiled
some pro-al-Qaeda militants' plans of terrorist attacks against
local facilities and foreign institutions including the British
embassy in Sana'a.

"Security forces seized a huge quantity of ammunition and suicide
vests of the same kind used in an attack against Saudi interior
minister late in August", the Yemeni official said.

Alimi noted that al-Qaeda has carried out 61 terrorist attacks
against vital facilities, foreign embassies and security commanders
that claimed the lives of unidentified number of people since 1992.

Supported with military jets, Yemeni security forces started last
month crackdown against al-Qaeda militants, in which more than 60
members of the extremist group were reportedly killed by the army
during the operations carried out in Sana'a and the two southern
provinces of Abyan and Shabwa.

YA