US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenet left Sanaa on Saturday after a short visit during which he met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
A government source which asked not to be named told the Kuwaiti official news agency (KUNA) that the meeting tackled the latest developments on the horizons of cooperation between the two sides over means of combating terrorism.
The source said that the two sides exchanged information concerning the list that was prepared by Washington which included some 13 Yemeni suspects which the US believes to have connection with the al-Qaeda organization amid the US fears that some of those suspects might carry out offensives against its interests in Yemen.
The source added that Tenet hailed the efforts exerted by the Yemeni government aimed at cracking down on suspects of al-Qaeda. The Yemeni Interior Minister Rashad Al-Elaimi earlier on the day met with the US Ambassador, th! e Saba agency said.
The Yemeni offcial agency said the meeting tackled means of fostering security spheres and Yemen’s benefit from the U.S. expertise in combating crime and terrorism.
The CIA chief arrived in Sanaa from Egypt where he met President Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile, it was disclosed that a suspected Yemeni member of the al-Qaeda network killed by security forces in Yemen last week was involved in the suicide bombing attack of the USS Cole in Aden in October 2000.
"Yemeni national Samir Ahmad Mohammad al-Hada was involved in the attack against the USS Cole as well as in the attacks against the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam," an official told AFP.
This Yemeni official told AFP that "Yemeni national Khaled al-Mihdar," one of the September 11 suicide hijackers and Samir al-Hada's brother-in-law, had "made a number of overseas calls to Ahmad al-Hada (Samir's father), who was then in Sanaa, before, during and after the attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam." (Albawaba.com)
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