A high ranking Yemen security official has said that he “does not rule out the presence of Saudi nationals among the 34 Al-Qaeda members killed or arrested by the Yemeni military in Sana'a and Abyan on Thursday. The Yemeni Deputy Minister of Interior for Security Mohammed Al-Qawsi told Okaz by telephone on Friday from Sa'ada that the operation was the result of security cooperation between “Yemen and Saudi Arabia and neighboring states,” and that Yemeni authorities “would not hesitate to hand over to the Kingdom any Saudis, killed or arrested, should they be identified.” Saudi embassy targeted Thursday's strikes on Al-Qaeda camps and strongholds led to the deaths of 34 Al-Qaeda members and 17 injured. Yemeni authorities said that among the dead were four suicide bombers preparing to target sites in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, among them the Saudi Embassy, according to Al-Qawsi. Security measures, he said, had been strengthened at the facility, adding that relations between Yemen and Saudi Arabia were “excellent”, “particularly in the fight against terrorism.” Government sources in Abyan in the south of Yemen where one of Thursday's offensives took place, said that two persons had been identified “in principle” as Saudis. They did not disclose whether the two were among the dead or the injured. The same sources said that among those killed was Abu Saleh Al-Kazimi, described as the head of an Al-Qaeda training camp in Abyan. Al-Kazimi is also believed to have been behind the planning and preparation of the attack that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers in Marib in July, 2007. According to other sources, the senior Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen Qassim Al-Raimi was among three prominent members, one of whom is believed to be a Saudi, who escaped Yemeni military strikes on hideouts in Arhab in the Sana'a province. The sources say that the three remain in a building that had been attacked by Yemeni forces. Al-Raimi is on the Saudi Ministry of Interior list of 85 persons wanted released in February of this year, and has previously appeared in a video with Saudis Saeed Al-Shehri and Mohammed Al-Oufi announcing the launch of Al-Qaeda operations in Yemeni territory. Al-Oufi subsequently handed himself in to the Kingdom's authorities, telling Saudi Television at the end of February that he had “realized the truth of the organization and its foreign alliances”.
