Yemen frees 176 al-Qaeda suspects

SANAA (Agencies)

Yemeni authorities released Monday all 176 al-Qaeda suspects without explanation, even though days before President Ali Abdullah Saleh appealled to tribal leaders to hand over other terrorist suspects, a security services official said on Sunday.

"Directives have been issued to us to free 176 people held for their links to the al-Qaeda network or to certain activities of this network," the unamed official told AFP. He added that 95 of the detainees in custody at various prisons had been freed on Friday.

Unnamed official

"Arrangements are being made to release the other detainees, (subject to) a commitment to good behavior," the official said. "The directives rule out the release of anyone convicted on terrorism charges, except when their sentences have been completed," he said.

Before the announcement of the latest steps, around 400 people were held in Yemeni prisons on suspicion of links with al-Qaeda or involvement in the activities of Osama bin Laden's network, according to unofficial estimates.

This comes after Saleh urged a few days ago the tribal leaders not to give refuge to militants and help the state's fight against al-Qaeda by turning them in. A security official told Reuters that authorities had detained 30 suspected militants in a renewed campaign.

Appeal to tribal sheikhs

The tribal leaders were from the three remote provinces of Marib, Shabwa and Jouf which have been the scene of frequent attacks by militants and kidnappings by disgruntled tribesmen.

Al-Qaeda's wing in Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral home, issued a video on the Internet last month in which it changed its name to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in an apparent attempt to revive the group in Saudi Arabia.

The group signaled last month it was expanding its operations into neighboring Saudi Arabia by appointing two Saudis released from the U.S. military camp in Guantanamo as commanders.

Yemen joined the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, and has jailed scores of militants in connection with the bombings of Western targets and clashes with authorities.