Top Al-Qaeda leader caught in siege of Islamist hardliners in Yemen
Security forces have captured a top Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen during an ongoing siege of dozens of Islamic extremists holed up in the remote mountains of the southern province of Abyan. “Abdul Rauf Nassib was among 12 Islamists arrested on Wednesday,” a regional security official told AFP. They were hiding out with dozens more men in the Jebel Thira area above the town of Lawder. “A senior official of Al-Qaeda in Yemen who was wanted by the police was arrested Wednesday night,” another official confirmed. Islamist sources named Nassib as one of the most senior Al-Qaeda officials in the Arabian peninsular republic, and the sole survivor of a missile attack launched from a US drone aircraft that killed six suspected Al-Qaeda men in Maarib province of eastern Yemen on November 3, 2002. Full Story