WORLD> Africa
|
WORLD> Africa
|
|
Yemen urges tribes to turn in Qaeda militants
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-04 11:19 Marib -- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday called on tribesmen in three desert provinces to help security forces in hunting down terrorists in their remote areas. "Fight terrorism, and expel the saboteurs, otherwise I am able to get them," Saleh told tribal chieftains he met after attending a military manoeuvre in the north-central province of Marib.
"Terrorism is damaging development and security in your areas," Saleh told the tribal chieftains represented Marib, al-Jawf and Shabwa, where officials say dozens of al-Qaeda fugitives are believed to be hiding. Saleh said the government forces would not be able to catch the fugitive terrorists without cooperation from people in those provinces. "You see them (terrorists) before your eyes in your villages, and you don't do anything to them," the Yemeni leader said. He said the government "even with its big army and security (forces) could not catch the saboteurs without a truthful cooperation from all the citizens in these provinces." Security forces launched last week a country-wide manhunt campaign in pursue of fugitives believed to be linked to al-Qaeda after the groups local leader, Nasser al-Wahishi made his first appearance on a video posted on Jihadist websites. Al-Wahishi, alias Abu-Bassir, threatened in the video to carry out attacks against US and Western interests in the Arabian Peninsula. On January 19, two suspected members of a cell belonging to the al-Qaeda, one of them was a Saudi national, were killed after police raided a house in Sanaa. After the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, Yemen allied itself with the US-led 'war on terror' and pursued suspected members of al-Qaeda, putting scores of them on trial. |
