Yemen said linked to guns in Saudi attack
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-12 09:21

Two AK-47 assault rifles used in a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia have been traced to Yemen's Defense Ministry, according to Western and Yemeni officials, raising new fears that the country isn't doing enough to fight terrorism.

The revelation comes five years after al-Qaida-linked militants bombed the USS Cole destroyer on Oct. 12, 2000, at the port in San'a, the capital, killing 17 sailors.

In other worrying developments, Yemeni militants are believed to be among foreigners fighting U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials have said.

Some Yemenis have even carried out suicide bombings in Iraq after their release from prison here under a government program, say Yemeni officials cited in local newspapers. Under the "dialogue" program Islamic fundamentalists are let go in exchange for renouncing violence.

Despite the setbacks, the United States continues to boost its security relationship with Yemen. Last week, it delivered more boats and equipment to the country's coast guard ahead of Wednesday's fifth anniversary of the USS Cole attack.

While U.S. officials publicly praise Yemen for curbing extremist groups, Western and Yemeni diplomats privately say it must do more to lock down its porous, 1,120-mile border with Saudi Arabia and prevent weapons and militant smuggling.

Yemen is awash with weapons, and strong ties exist between its military and tribal groups, which make up the backbone of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's power base.

The Yemen government sometimes gives weapons to tribes to curry favor, and it is believed the AK-47 rifles in question were likely smuggled into a black market and bought by militants.

Two of the AK-47 assault rifles used in the Dec. 6 militant attack on the U.S. consulate in the Saudi city of Jiddah were traced by their serial numbers back to Yemen's Ministry of Defense, a Western diplomat told The Associated Press, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. Five consulate employees and four attackers died in the assault.

The diplomat said U.S. authorities have filed protests over the incident to Yemeni officials, complaining that more should be done to safeguard weapons.

U.S. officials declined to confirm or deny the use of Yemeni weapons. But a Yemeni Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said American and Saudi authorities have protested the use of at least one Yemeni weapon in the Jiddah attack.

One of Yemen's most powerful tribal leaders, Sheikh Mohammed Naguib Shaif, also said U.S. and Yemeni officials told him that Yemeni military weapons were used in the Jiddah attack. Shaif also is a lawmaker aligned with the ruling political party.

Shaif said the government must combat rampant corruption and reform its judiciary to prevent the country from turning into another Afghanistan or Iraq.

"We can't establish security in Yemen before establishing an effective judiciary to enforce laws," Shaif told AP from his heavily fortified compound in San'a.

Yemen came under intense U.S. pressure after the attack on the USS Cole by al-Qaida-linked militants, who rammed a dinghy packed with explosives into the destroyer. Yemen was called on to do even more to combat terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

During the past three years, the United States has spent more than $18 million to strengthen Yemen's coast guard to prevent smuggling and militants entering from Horn of Africa nations.

In turn, Yemen has sentenced to death two detainees for the USS Cole attack, including a Saudi held by U.S. authorities at an undisclosed location. It ordered four other Yemenis jailed for five to 10 years.

A counterterrorism agent working for a Western government said the security relationship between Western governments and Yemen "was nascent and growing" with the West seeking more intelligence on what's happening in the farther reaches of the country.

Yemen is the ancestral home of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was a source of militants who fought in Afghanistan during its Soviet occupation.

Newspapers in Yemen, citing anonymous Yemeni security sources, have reported that two Yemenis who died in a July suicide bombing in Baghdad were among more than 360 Islamic extremists released from Yemeni custody since 2003, as part of a "dialogue" program run by a senior judge with close ties to security officials.

Supreme Court Judge Hamoud Abdulhamid Al-Hitar, however, said there was no evidence to prove that two released militants carried out any Iraq suicide attacks. But he acknowledged Yemeni security forces have caught dozens of young Yemenis bound for Iraq in the past two months.

Al-Hitar said his dialogue sessions try to persuade extremists not to attack Western or government interests inside Yemen, and to reintegrate them back into society. He said Iraq is not addressed.

"We are not interested in dealing with issues in Iraq," Al-Hitar told AP. But he added: "We try to tell them that it's not a duty to go to Iraq."

A key political opposition figure, Yemeni Socialist Party lawmaker Mohammed Salah, claimed that the government has not cut ties to terrorists, and uses the program to "get these people to support and work for the authorities."

"The government deals with terrorists in a way to keep them under their control, to use them when it needs to," said Salah.

There may be little more Yemen's government can do given its limited control over vast tribal areas and the Saudi border, meaning al-Qaida militants can still move freely, said Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Affairs.

"The Yemeni central government has done what it can, but it is very weak," Cordesman said. "It is not a matter of the government not trying. But there are limits to it can do."