Yemeni security forces have foiled some pro-al-Qaida militants' plans of terrorist attacks against local facilities and foreign
institutions including the British embassy in Sanaa, Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defense Affairs Rashad al-Alimi said Wednesday.
In a report to the parliament, al-Alimi said eight pro-al-Qaida extremists were about to
complete preparations for the attacks. Three of them were killed in a crackdown in Arhab district in Sanaa earlier this week, three others were arrested, while two still at large, the ruling
People's Congress Party reported on its website.
During the operation, security forces seized a huge quantity of ammunition and suicide vests of the same kind used in an attack against Saudi interior minister late in August, the Yemeni official said.
In a separate operation in the al-Ma'gala neighborhood in southern Yemen, 23 pro-al-Qaida
extremists, including two Saudis, two Pakistanis, a number of Egyptians and five other foreigners, have been killed, Alimi said.
Meanwhile, the deputy prime minister deplored the killing of some civilians in the attacks,pointing out that two of the militants brought some of their family members to serve their pro-Qaida colleagues in the training camp bombarded by the army in the crackdown.
The government is committed to offering compensation for the victims in the light of the
conclusions brought by the fact- finding committee formed upon directives by President Ali
Abdullah Saleh, he added.
Alimi noted that al-Qaida has carried out 61 terrorist attacks against vital facilities, foreign embassies and security commanders that claimed the lives of unidentified number of people
since 1992.
Supported with military jets, Yemeni security forces started on Thursday crackdown
against al-Qaida militants, in which 34 members of the extremist group were reportedly killed by the army during the operations carried out in Sanaa and the southern province of Abyan.