October 2, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 5, 1424

SANAA, Oct 1: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will soon open an office in Yemen, seen as a hotbed of militants, as part of the US “war on terror”, the American ambassador said on Tuesday.

“Yes, the FBI is setting up office in Sanaa,” US ambassador to Yemen Edmund Hull said.

“We expect it to happen within the next two months,” said Mr Hull, a former head of the counter-terrorism office at the US State Department.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and one of the poorest Arab countries, has closely cooperated with the US “anti-terror war” to rid itself of its image as a stronghold of militancy.

The country is battling militants, particularly the Al Qaeda network, blamed for the 2000 bombings of the US warship Cole and a supertanker in Yemeni waters last year.

Yemen’s government is treading a fine line between domestic anti-US sentiment and its need for foreign aid and investment, much of which comes from the United States.—Reuters