Sanaa to Bring Home 500 Yemeni Fighters from Afghanistan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 14, 2001

Sanaa to Bring Home 500 Yemeni Fighters from Afghanistan

Yemen is working to bring home 400-500 men who went to Afghanistan to join Osama bin Laden or the Taliban, President Ali Abdullah Saleh was quoted as saying in Thursday's official press.

Yemen is working to bring home 400-500 men who went to Afghanistan to join Osama bin Laden or the Taliban, President Ali Abdullah Saleh was quoted as saying in Thursday's official press.

The Sanaa goverment "is currently negotiating the repatriation of nationals with the international alliance and Pakistan," Saleh said. An unnamed official was quoted as adding: "They will be brought to justice to answer for any links with Al-Qaeda or the Taliban, or involvement in terrorist acts."

Investigations into the Yemeni fighters would also cover their possible roles in attacks on the US embassies in East Africa in 1998, the October 2000 blowing up of the US destroyer Cole in Aden and the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, the official said.

Saudi-born Bin Laden, whose family has its roots in Yemen, is accused by Washington of being behind all the attacks. Saleh, who met President George W. Bush at the White House at the end of November, expressed fears that Yemen could be a target of the US anti-terror war.

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