New acts of arrests in Yemen

The US daily " Washington Post" said on Tuesday that the Yemeni authorities arrested 9 persons suspected to have links to Osama Bin Laden.

News reports quoted the paper as saying that the nine persons were arrested at the charge of planning to attack members of the US team who investigates in the incident of blowing off the US warship (USS Cole) which took place at Aden port in October.

The paper quoted a high ranking US official as saying that the Yemeni authorities found with the detained persons documents, mortars, small weapons and a map for the American embassy in Yemen. A matter which indicates that there is a plan to attack the Americans.

The Washington Post later printed an update that says "Yemeni officials denied on Tuesday that authorities had arrested nine men for allegedly plotting to attack U.S. agents probing last year's bombing of a U.S. destroyer in the Arab state, " adding that the arrests, according to the government, "The only people we have arrested recently have been members of a gang that was terrorising villages."