This roundup comes in the wake of a great deal of negative press about Yemen’s counter-terrorism efforts, which have been so half-hearted that even al-Qaeda has discouraged attacks on Yemeni authorities since they haven’t been “tools in the hands of the crusaders.”
But now that they have those eleven suspects, will the track record on prosecutions and detentions actually improve?
“Yemen arrests 11 suspected Al-Qaeda members,” from Agence France-Presse, May 30:
SANAA: Yemeni security forces have broken up an 11-member Al-Qaeda cell in the capital Sanaa, the Defense Ministry’s online newspaper reported on Thursday. The suspects, who were arrested over the past few days, revealed during their interrogation “important information regarding terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda,” the September 26 Web site reported. Al-Qaeda’s wing in Yemen has carried out a series of attacks in recent months targeting the US and Italian embassies and a residential complex which is home to US oil workers. “Six Saudi Arabians and three Chadians are among the people arrested,” a source close to the inquiry said. “The Saudis are jihadists who originally wanted to go to Iraq but ended up coming to Yemen because of the strict measures taken by authorities in their country for monitoring the border with Iraq.”