Cell phone companies were ordered to cut services by Yemeni authorities in parts of the south where the government is fighting a violent secessionist movement.

The Yemen Post reported that "owing to the commonwealth and security requirements," Communications Minister Kamal Hussein al-Jabri ordered cell phone companies in 14 districts in the southern provinces of Lahj and Dhale to cut service.

Washington, Jan 11 : US head of Central Command, General David Petraeus, has dismissed reports of a possible ground assault in Yemen, saying that American forces will remain focused on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in its battle against Al-Qaeda.

Petraeus, who is overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, believes that Al-Qaeda is under pressure in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and the organization is now seeking refuge in Yemen, but said that Afghan-Pak border is the most important locale in America’s war against terror.

“Right now, as far as any kind of boots on the ground there (Yemen), with respect to the US, that''s not a possibility,” The Dawn quoted Petraeus, as saying.

Washington, Jan 10 - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with attempting to blow up a Christmas Day flight over Detroit, told investigators that about 20 other Muslims were being trained in Yemen for similar attacks, US broadcaster CBS said, citing the British intelligence services.

The attack on the Delta/Northwest Airlines flight was prevented only because the PETN explosive that Abdulmutallab smuggled on board failed to detonate.

An initial inquiry commissioned by US President Barack Obama found that the attack had been plotted by the Yemen affiliate of the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

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.

Washington, Jan 6 - The US has halted the transfer of inmates from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility back to Yemen, where an Al Qaeda branch allegedly plotted the Dec 25 attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

About half of the nearly 200 remaining prisoners at Guantanamo are Yemeni citizens, making their fate a key component of the administration's pledge to close the controversial facility in Cuba.

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 (Yemen), Jan 5 - One policeman was killed and three were wounded following clashes at a demonstration in the city of Aden on Monday, police said.

Brigadier General Abduallah Qairan, head of police forces in Aden, said that demonstrators at a sit-in at the banned al-Ayyam newspaper first opened fire on the police, who retaliated.

"Armed supporters of the newspaper opened fire on the policemen, killing one instantly and wounding three others, including a senior officer," Qairan told dpa, adding that the protest was unauthorized.

Sana’a, Jan. 4 : Closure of the US embassy in Yemen in the wake of the Detroit flight bombing bid is not all what President Obama ought to do to dismantle the al Qaeda in Yemen – a country crucial to his vow to defeat global terrorism, the CSM has opined.

Yemen, perhaps even more than Afghanistan, goes to the core of Obama’s antiterrorism philosophy, it says.

Sana'a (Yemen), Jan 4 - The US and British embassies in the Yemen capital Sana'a were closed Sunday amid terrorism threats threats from the regional branch of Al Qaeda, a Yemeni security source said.

The source, who asked not to be named, said the two embassies had received intelligence about potential attacks.

"They informed Yemeni authorities that they had received intelligence tip-offs about possible attacks," the source told the German Press Agency dpa.

Sana’a, Jan. 4 : Even as Washington closed its embassy in Yemen in the wake of escalating Al Qaeda threats, it is not planning to open a base here to expand the global war on terror, President Obama''s top counterterrorism adviser has said.

Sana'a/Cairo, Jan 3 - Yemen will fight terrorist groups on its soil, the country's foreign minister said Saturday, as the government welcomed a planned international conference on growing extremism in the poor Gulf country.

Security forces meanwhile began a clampdown along Yemeni coasts in efforts to prevent infiltration by Islamist militants from neighbouring Somalia.

Washington, Dec 30 - The US and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets in Yemen for a potential strike in retaliation to the botched Christmas Day attack on an airliner that Al Qaeda in Yemen claims it organised.

The effort is aimed at being ready with options for the White House if President Barack Obama orders a retaliatory strike, CNN said, citing two unnamed senior US officials. The effort is to see whether targets can be specifically linked to the airliner incident and its planning.

US special operations forces and intelligence agencies, and their Yemeni counterparts, are working to identify potential Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, one of the officials said.

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)

Lahore, Dec. 28 : The recent flight bombing bid by a Yemen-linked al Qaeda operative has forced US and British security agencies to change their earlier perception that the operational abilities of the terror group based in Afghanistan and Pakistan were degrading.

The foiled attempt to bring the Detroit-bound US jet down has reaffirmed that Al Qaeda is still a dangerous threat, as the group may have managed to outsource and reconstitute parts of its operations to Somalia and Yemen, The Daily Times reports.

Sanaa (Yemen), Dec. 28 : A branch of al-Qaeda is gaining prominence in Yemen following the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight last week.

The Washington Post has quoted Yemeni and Western officials, terrorism analysts, and tribal leaders, as saying that Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, may have been equipped and trained by an al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen.

He allegedly made that claim to FBI agents after his arrest.

New York, Dec. 28 : Yemen is emerging as the most probable and suitable hideout for al Qaeda terrorists after Afghanistan, Fox News has quoted intelligence and security officials, as saying.

According to these officials, if terrorism follows the path of least resistance, then Yemen may be the poor man''s Afghanistan.

With a stepped up presence of U. S. forces in Afghanistan, intelligence and security officials believe Yemen tops the list of other would-be hosts to Al Qaeda and its offshoot terrorist elements.

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. 19 : Signalling an expansion in the Obama administration’s fight against the Al-Qaeda, the United States has launched two missile strikes against the terror organization in Yemen, two Pentagon sources have revealed.

Fox News quoted a senior official as saying that the politically sensitive strikes fired on Thursday supplement efforts already under way by the government of Yemen to go after Al Qaeda in the country.

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.