December 20, 2001	Thursday	Shawwal 4, 1422

SANAA, Dec 19: Yemeni forces backed by tanks and helicopters on Tuesday raided a village where combatants of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network were believed to be holed up, leaving 12 people dead, tribal sources said.

Several more men on both sides were wounded, the sources said, but at least one wanted man had reportedly escaped.

A police spokesman confirmed the battle in a communique, saying some people were dead and injured. Several people who had sheltered suspects had been arrested, he told the official SABA news agency.

Search operations were continuing, the spokesman added.

Yemeni army and police special units laid siege during the morning to Al-Hosun village in Marib province, 200 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa, the tribal sources said.

Special forces fired shells “in the hunt for elements who returned recently from Afghanistan and who are believed to be members of al-Qaeda,” one source said.

A gunbattle followed between government forces and armed men of the Abeideh tribe, who control the plains village near the town of Marib and gave shelter to the suspected Al-Qaeda supporters, witnesses said.

The clashes “left 12 people dead from the two sides”, a tribal dignitary said. “Several people were also wounded,” he said.

Army tanks also entered the fray and several houses were destroyed, witnesses said.

“The military offensive came to a halt in the middle of the afternoon after about two and a half hours of shelling,” the tribal elder said.

“Hostilities have stopped,” said a police source, but “tension remains very high in the region.”

Troops and helicopters have been combing the provinces of Marib, Shabwa and Al-Juf in search of two or three Yemeni members of al-Qaeda, official sources said.

One of them, known as Bin Thanian, had arrived in al-Hosun overnight accompanied by his family and with government troops on his tail, according to a local dignitary.

But he had subsequently escaped from al-Hosun and village elders were now talking with the authorities to end the siege, the dignitary said.

on Wednesday special army troops led by the son of President Ali Abdullah Saleh were sent to search for Muslim militants linked to Osama bin Laden a day after clashes killed at least 18 people from both sides.

“Special units led by Colonel Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh...have been dispatched to support army units in Marib and Shabwa provinces,” a security official told Reuters.

Ahmed heads Yemen’s Republican Guard, an elite force to protect the president.

Government officials said the army did not exchange fire with the militants and their tribal protectors on Wednesday but the search operations were going on.

“This is a hot pursuit that will continue until the terrorist elements are arrested,” one official said.

Government forces have been combing the Shabwa, Marib and al-Jouf provinces in eastern Yemen in a hunt for several suspects, including two or three tribal chiefs Washington has asked Yemen to arrest.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has implied that Yemen, where tribesmen routinely carry arms, could be a target in the US-led war against terror and said Sanaa was closely watching two or three suspected members of al-Qaeda.

Saleh admitted that Washington gave him a list of suspects during his Nov 27 visit when he met US President George W. Bush.

Osama bin Laden’s family originates from Yemen and the world’s most wanted man has found support among conservatives from his ancestral home who followed him to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

ATTACK AFTER ULTIMATUM: “The government gave them (the tribe) an ultimatum to hand over the suspects. When they refused, they launched the attack,” a security official said.

The official Saba news agency quoted a security source on Tuesday as saying some people suspected of sheltering the militants were arrested and security forces were still searching for others.

The government’s al-Thawra newspaper said Tuesday’s three-hour clashes were part of Yemen’s efforts to join the international coalition against terrorism.

But it added: “Pursuing suspected terrorists is a Yemeni decision and is conducted by using its own national resources.”

The paper said some of the militants were non-Yemeni Arabs, who had “shown no respect for Yemen’s hospitality...because of their involvement in destructive activities”.

Yemen, a poor Arab country located at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is seen in the West as a haven for Muslim militants, including bin Laden supporters.—Reuters\AFP