Sana'a, Jan 6 : Yemeni police have arrested three suspected Al Qaeda members who managed to flee a police raid near the Yemeni capial of Sana'a two days ago, the interior ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry said the three men were arrested in a hospital in Raida, Amran province, some 60 km north of Sana'a.

They had apparently been brought there, injured, after fleeing the raid, in which two alleged terrorists died, the interior ministry reported.

A publication linked to the defence ministry reported that another four men who had helped bring the Al Qaeda suspects to the hospital had also been arrested.

Sana'a (Yemen), Jan 5 - The US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana'a reopened to the public Tuesday after a two-day closure prompted by threats from the regional branch of Al Qaeda, an embassy official said.

"The embassy reopened today and resumed its normal operation," the source said on the condition of anonymity. (dpa)

Sana'a, Dec 29 :Yemen confirmed Monday that the man suspected of trying to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day bad been in the country for months before leaving earlier in December.

The foreign ministry said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was in Yemen since August studying Arabic. He had obtained a visa to study in the capital Sana'a.

Sanaa, Dec 29 :Somali pirates are holding a Yemeni cargo ship with 16 crewmembers on board in the Indian Ocean, officials said Monday.

The al-Mahmoud 2 had left the southern port of Aden Dec 18, Yemeni coastguards said. The owner of the vessel notified the security agencies about the seizure, Xinhua reported.

According to Yemeni officials, 41 cargo vessels were seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden region in 2009. About 20,000 ships pass through the area every year.(IANS)

Sanaa (Yemen), Dec. 25 : Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched a major attack Thursday on a meeting of senior al-Qaeda operatives thought to include the Yemeni American cleric linked to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, U. S. and Yemeni officials said.

According to the Washington Post, American officials believe that the cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was probably killed in the assault, as were two al-Qaeda leaders.

Sanaa (Yemen), Dec 17 : Thirty-four Al Qaeda militants were killed Thursday in two separate operations by the security forces in Yemen, media reports said.

The militants were planning to attack government facilities and foreign institutions in the country, Xinhua reported quoting a report on a newspaper website.

In one incident, Yemeni forces stormed an Al Qaeda training centre in southern Abyan province, killing 30 insurgents, the report quoted an official requesting anonymity.

Sana'a (Yemen), Dec 11 : Yemen has welcomed the humanitarian relief provided to the country by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), WAM news agency reported Friday.

Yemeni Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdul Kareem Al-Arhabi Thursday thanked to the UAE for its humanitarian support to his country provided through the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA).

During his meeting with RCA delegation to Yemen, Al-Arhabi further expressed appreciation of the UAE initiative to fund the construction of a relief camp for victims of torrential rains in Hadramaut and Al-Mahra.(IANS)

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni tribesmen holding a Japanese engineer hostage havemoved him to a desert region in north-central Yemen after pressure for his release mounted, a tribal leader said on Saturday.

"The kidnappers moved the Japanese man to another hideout in al-Jawf province," Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Sinan told the German Press Agency dpa by phone from Arhab district near the capital Sana'a.

Sana'a, Yemen - The Saudi army bombed Shiite rebel positions deep inside Yemen territories on Saturday, with artillery and fighter jets striking new targets, the rebels said in a statement.

They said 145 missiles hit areas in al-Malahid, Shada and al- Hasama districts of the north-western Yemeni province of Saada.

The bombardment targeted areas deeper in the Yemeni side of the borders, including Dhahir al-Humair mountain, Kamama and Ghafira of the Haidan district, the rebels claimed.

Sana'a, Yemen - Shiite rebels fighting the national army in north-western Yemen accused Saudi Arabia on Monday of allowing Yemeni forces to use its territories as a launchpad for attacking their positions on the border.

"Saudi authorities opened its territories for the Yemeni army to position at a base in Mountain al-Dokhan, from which it began its aggression against us," the rebels said in an e-mailed statement.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni security forces have arrested a Somali man believed to belong to the terror al-Qaeda group in a raid on a mosque in the west of the country, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The suspect was arrested along with five other Somali men after police raided the Fatima mosque in the Red Sea port city of Makha on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry identified the al-Qaeda suspect as Nour Omar Warsama. It did not say why the five other Somalis were arrested.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court Tuesday sentenced four Shiite rebels to death and 11 others to jail terms of up to 15 years after convicting them of taking up arms against government troops last year.

The defendants were convicted of forming an "armed group to execute a criminal plan" and attacking security forces in Bani- Hushaish district, some 30 kilometres north of Sana'a, in clashes that broke out in May 2008 and went on for three months.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A Yemeni state security court began on Monday the trial in absentia of an MP charged with playing a leading role in the Shiite rebellion led by his brother in the north-western part of the Arab country.

Yahya al-Houthi, the elder brother of the insurgents' commander Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, was charged with "forming a terrorist armed group."

Thousands of Shiite insurgents are fighting against the national army in rugged areas in the north-western provinces of Saada and Amran.

Parliament lifted Yahy's parliamentary immunity on October 10 to pave the way for his trial.

Sanaa (Yemen), Oct 19 - Eighteen Shia rebels were killed in fighting with the army in northern Yemen Sunday, media reports said.

Seven insurgents were killed in clashes in Bart triangle, Wadi Ablah and Thu Sulaiman areas of northern Saada province, while five others were killed in the mountainous Harf Sufian region, Xinhua reported quoting the SABA news agency.

Five more militants were killed while they were trying to block a road in Saada.

The army has seized huge quantities of arms and ammunition in the operation, SABA said quoting an unnamed military official.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen started on Thursday the production of liquefied gas from a plant operated by an international consortium led by French oil major Total, a company statement said.

"Total announces that the Yemen LNG liquefaction plant started producing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) on October 15, 2009," the statement said.

"Yemen LNG's first cargo is scheduled in the coming weeks," the company said, without giving an exact date.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A Russian-made fighter jet crashed as it was shelling strongholds of Shiite rebels on the northwestern borders with Saudi Arabia on Friday, the Yemen defence ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the Mig-29 aircraft slammed into a mountain after it malfunctioned during a raid on one of the rebels bases in the Saqain district of Saada province, around 240 kilometers north of the capital Sana'a.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A senior Yemeni intelligence official survived an assassination attempt after gunmen ambushed his vehicle Wednesday in the southern province of Abyan, the Interior Ministry said.

The assailants sprayed the car of Major General Nasser Manour Hadi with gunfire in Zinjibar city, the provincial capital of Abyan, some 480 kilometres south of Sana'a, according a ministry source quoted by the state-run Saba news agency.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni authorities late Friday declared a ceasefire in fighting with Shiite rebels in north-western areas in order to secure the passage of humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of people.

The truce, which begins at midnight and would last for the Eid al- Fetr holiday, was announced in response to appeals from international relief agencies, the official Saba news agency reported.

It did not give a specific time when the truce would end, but the Eid holiday ends September 28.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni authorities late Friday declared a ceasefire in fighting with Shiite rebels in north-western areas in order to secure passage of humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of people, the official Saba news agency reported.

The agency said the truce, which begins overnight Friday and would last for the Eid al-Fetr holiday, was announced in response to appeals from international relief agencies.  dpa

Sana'a, Yemen  - Scores of civilians, mostly women and children displaced by hostilities in north-western Yemen, were killed in an airstrike Wednesday in Amran province, tribal sources said.

The sources said a fighter jet shelled a gathering of people in a flat, rocky expanse in al-Adi area of the Harf Sufian district, where the army is battling Shiite rebels.

In a second raid, a war plane bombed survivors as they ran for safety in nearby farmland, the sources said.