CAIRO Ñ Yemen reports the detention of about 200 Al Qaida insurgents
in a drive against the Islamic movement.
Yemeni government spokesman Nasser Taha Mustafa said so far 35 of the
200 Al Qaida suspects have been released. Mustafa said the release came
after the detainees were indoctrinated by clergymen aligned with the
government.
The spokesman said that Yemeni relations with the United States were
excellent, Middle East Newsline reported.
He said the two countries have engaged in a fruitful security cooperation.
Washington understands and supports the Yemeni reform program launched
in 1995, Mustafa said in an interview by the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat. He said Yemen's reform program was endorsed by U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns during an international donor
conference for Yemen, which took place in Paris in October 2002.
But Mustafa provided few details of the Yemeni arrests of suspected
Islamic insurgents over the last few weeks. He said the assassination of a
Yemeni opposition politician Ñ which sparked the crackdown Ñ was still
being investigated.
