Yemeni forces kill al-Qaeda kingpin

Yemeni security forces have killed an al-Qaeda kingpin in an eastern province in operations against the group held responsible for the botched bombing of a US airliner, an official said yesterday.

"Abdullah Mehdar was killed last night (Tuesday) by security forces which had besieged the house he hid in," Shabwa's provincial governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told reporters.

Mr Mehdar was the leader of an al-Qaeda cell in the Al-Houta district of Shabwa province, 600 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa. Security forces were hunting for the remaining members of the cell, Mr Ahmadi said.

The al-Qaeda branch in Yemen claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day attack on a US airliner, with the US accusing the group of training the alleged perpetrator, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Yemen's national security chief Ali Anisi said Mr Mehdar was an "important member of the network" and boasted of successful attacks on al-Qaeda militants even before the failed plane bombing.

"We are on the offensive and the terrorists are terrified and in hiding," he said.

"Yemen is not Afghanistan, nor Pakistan, where terrorists constantly launch attacks while the authorities try to respond. Here, we anticipate the threat. Yemen is not a hideout for the terrorists and will never be," he added.

Mr Ahmadi said on Tuesday that security forces had arrested four Al-Qaeda suspects, two of them wounded in a firefight.

A tribal source said 18 suspects in the same area managed to escape a police raid and fled to a neighbouring mountain.

The Yemeni government has sent troop reinforcements to some eastern provinces in recent weeks as it has intensified its fight against al-Qaeda militants.

Separately, two policemen were killed and four wounded in an ambush by unknown gunmen in Al-Nuqbah area of Shabwa province, Mr Ahmadi said.

The governor announced on Sunday that dozens of al-Qaeda fighters, including Saudis and Egyptians who have fled Afghanistan, were hiding in Shabwa.