Yemeni Jet Crashes Near Comoros Islands – 150 Onboard

A Yemeni airliner with 150 people aboard has crashed near the Comoros Islands, an aviation official in Yemen says.

An airliner with 150 people on board belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia Air crashed in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros Tuesday, a senior government official said.

“We don’t know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane,” Comoros vice-president Idi Nadhoim told Reuters from the airport at the main island’s capital Moroni.

Nadhoim said the accident happened in the early hours of Tuesday, but could not give any more details.

The location was not immediately known, but a medical worker in the town of Mitsamiouli, on the main island Grande Comore, said he had been called into the local hospital.

“They have just called me to come to the hospital. They said a plane had crashed,” he told Reuters.

A Comoran police source said the plane was believed to have come down in the sea. “We really have no sea rescue capabilities,” he added.

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Yemen Terror Killings May Be Work of Former Gitmo Prisoner

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery.

But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization’s No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was released from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

And if al-Shihri is behind the gruesome murders and abductions, they say, it raises grave concerns that the scheduled January 2010 closing of the Guantanamo prison and the release of most of its prisoners to foreign countries will galvanize Al Qaeda and compromise American national security.

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Yemen – 9 Foreigners, Including 3 Children, Found Dead

A Yemeni security official says six other missing foreigners, including three children, have been found dead, bringing the total number to nine.

The nine foreigners, including seven German nationals, a Briton and a South Korean, disappeared last week while on a picnic in the restive northern Saada region of Yemen.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, announced the discovery of the remaining six bodies Monday after three others were found earlier in the day.

Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East, is home to restive tribes, a Shiite rebellion, as well as a division of Al Qaeda which operates in its remote regions and has often targeted foreigners.

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Al-Qaeda Claims S Korean Convoy Attack

An al-Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy carrying the South Korean ambassador in Yemen last month.

In a statement posted on a website on Friday, ‘al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ claimed responsibility for the attack, boasting that it was a ‘well-planned’ operation which demonstrates the ‘incapacity’ of the Yemeni security forces.

It also accused the Yemeni Foreign Ministry of trying to ‘hide the number of losses in the operation’.

The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed, a US-based monitoring group said.

Korean forces, who were investigating an earlier bombing that killed four of their compatriots in Yemen, were attacked on their way to Sanaa international airport on March 18.

The bomber apparently missed his target by triggering his explosive belt seconds after the convoy passed by, leaving no casualties behind.

Yemen is considered an al-Qaeda stronghold and has witnessed a number of attacks on tourist sites, foreign missions and oil installations in the past few years.

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Yemen On High Alert For al Qaeda Terror Attack

Over the last several weeks a growing number of al Qaeda operatives have entered Yemen from Saudi Arabia and have established a renewed network that potentially threatens U.S. and Saudi targets in the region, both U.S. and Yemeni officials have told CNN.

As a result Yemeni security forces have gone on high alert.

CNN spoke with three U.S. officials and a Yemeni embassy official who outlined new concerns about al Qaeda in Yemen that all three said go beyond the usual worries about the terror organization in Yemen. None of the officials could be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the information.

“There are strong indications of heightened activity in Yemen,” one U.S. official told CNN. “There is real concern in the U.S. government that al Qaeda is trying to mount attacks in Yemen.”

The United States continues to worry about attacks against the U.S. embassy or other U.S. business interests in Yemen the official said. But there are also growing concerns that a renewed al Qaeda network in Yemen could plan attacks against Saudi oil infrastructure or the massive cargo shipping operations that run through the immediate region — potentially disrupting an already shaky world economy.

The official said there is a flow of intelligence information in recent weeks backing up that assessment. “There are clear indications al Qaeda is placing emphasis on Yemen as a place to conduct operations and train operatives.”

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Yemen – US Embassy Terror Attack Leaves Several Dead, Injured

Islamist militants attacked the US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa with a car bomb and rockets on Wednesday, leaving 16 people dead, in the second strike on the high-security compound in six months.

No American personnel were reported injured. Read more

Freighter With Chemicals Seized In Gulf of Aden

A freighter loaded with volatile chemicals has been seized in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen.

Officials said Yemen had been alerted to the hijacking of the freighter and has launched a search. They said the vessel, Bunga Melati-5 and registered in Malaysia, was reported captured by unknown assailants on Aug. 29 in the Gulf of Aden.

“We believe it was pirates, but it could be an organized terrorist effort,” an official said.

Officials said the Yemeni Coast Guard, in cooperation with the United States, has been searching for the freighter. They said the freighter relayed an alert to nearby ships of attack by unidentified gunmen.

Yemen Arrests 30 al-Qaeda Suspects Planned Attacks On Saudi Arabia

Yemeni authorities have arrested 30 suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network believed to have been plotting attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, official sources said Thursday.

The 30 men, all Yemenis, were captured in the south-eastern province of Hadhramout, where police forces dismantled an al-Qaeda cell on August 12, a police source was quoted as saying by the 26 September weekly. Read more