Yemeni security forces Wednesday captured a key Al-Qaeda leader and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa which prompted embassies to bolt their doors, police said. The arrest of Mohammed al-Hanq and the two other suspected extremists at a hospital in Raydah, north of capital, came as Yemen's authorities said Al-Qaeda jihadists were being choked countrywide and forced into holes. Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded. A security official told that security forces had Wednesday morning swooped on a hospital in Raydah, 80 kilometres (50 miles), north of Sanaa in Amran province, where the suspects were receiving treatment. Mohammed al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran, the official said. Four men who had transported the wounded to the hospital and hid them from police were also taken into custody, the defence ministry-linked news website 26Sep.net said. Two other Al-Qaeda suspects meanwhile turned themselves in to the authorities in the region of Marib, east of Sanaa, on Wednesday, and a third surrendered in Arhab, a security official said. The interior ministry said Wednesday its security forces were repeatedly raiding hideouts of terrorist elements in several provinces and had turned their fight against terrorism into a daily confrontation. (Security operations) are not leaving the terrorist elements the chance to take a breath or reorganise their lines, the ministry said in a statement on its website. Al-Qaeda elements are no longer the ones taking the initiative in deciding the time and place of confrontations, it said, adding that painful and recurring strikes have forced Al-Qaeda to retreat to the holes. The US embassy closed on Sunday over security concerns prompted by fears of an Al-Qaeda threat against foreign interests just days after a failed attack on a US airliner claimed by the Al-Qaeda franchise in Yemen. Some countries, including Britain and France, followed suit while others curtailed consular operations as security was tightened around their missions. The US embassy reopened for business on Tuesday, saying that Yemeni security forces had addressed a specific area of concern the previous day. Successful counter-terrorism operations conducted by the government of Yemen security forces January 4 north of the capital have addressed a specific area of concern, and have contributed to the embassy's decision to resume operations, the embassy said in a statement which is widely believed to be a reference to the threat posed by the cell headed by Hanq. The British and French embassies have also resumed operations, although the British mission's consular services remained shut on Wednesday. Long-standing concerns that Yemen, a country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has become a haven for Islamic terror groups were thrown into sharp focus when a Nigerian man allegedly trained in Yemen was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jet. The botched Christmas Day attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which also urged attacks on Western interests in Yemen. The would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen for the suicide mission on the Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Explosives allegedly sewn into the man's underwear failed to detonate, and passengers jumped on him. Yemeni authorities were investigating how Abdulmutallab managed to easily leave the country, where he was official studying Arabic language, although his visa had expired, an official said on Wednesday. Authorities are investigating with police officers at the airport to find out how he managed to leave the country although his permit to stay had expired, the official told. Abdulmutallab had left Yemen on December 7 although he was scheduled to leave on September 24, when his visa expired. His whereabouts during that period remained unknown, he said.
