Yemen detains five convicted persons belongs to al-Qaida

The Yemeni authorities detained five persons suspected to be members in al-Qaida organization. They are of Yemeni and Saudi nationalities.

A source close to the Yemeni ministry of the interior stressed yesterday what was disclosed by the Yemeni weekly September 26 quoting another security source to that the Yemeni authorities arrested last Friday five persons, The paper said quoting the security source that "plans were found with the detainees explaining on how to make explosives and use weapons as well as tapes and other documents including 8 money transfers via one commercial bank in one Arab African country."

The source did not define the name of the country nor gave more details about the detainees and place of their detention.

Yemen accuses al-Qaida organization of being behind the blowing up the American warship USS Cole in the year 2000 and a French tanker in 2002 in the Yemeni territorial waters.

Earlier this month, the American embassy recommended its citizens in Yemen to take security measures because of an undefined threat. This warning came after foreign diplomats were notified of likely attacks to take place.