Yemen Arrests 'Qaida Women' Fleeing Shootout Scene
Authorities have arrested four female al-Qaida suspects in southeastern Yemen as they attempted to flee the scene of deadly clashes between police and jihadists, a security official said Thursday.
The women, three of them Saudis, were arrested Wednesday as they tried to flee a house in Shahr, in the extremist stronghold of Hadramawt province, the source said.
Al-Qaida suspects hiding in two houses had opened fire at police searching the area, and three people from each side were killed, police said Wednesday.
Witnesses confirmed the arrest of four veiled women, who they said were leaving one of the houses with a child through the back door.
The women, who "were cooperating with al-Qaida," were later flown by helicopter to Sanaa, the official said, without providing further details.
Tension prevailed in Shahr Thursday as government forces set up roadblocks and beefed up security, residents said.
Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden and the home base of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which the United States views as the global jihadist network's most dangerous franchise.
AQAP took advantage of a decline in central government control during Yemen's 2011 uprising -- which eventually forced president Ali Abdullah Saleh from power -- to seize large swathes of territory across the south.
The militants were driven back in June 2012 and the group has been weakened by U.S. drone strikes.
But AQAP remains active in southern and eastern Yemen, and regularly carries out hit-and-run attacks on security forces.
Source: Agence France Presse
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