Half were Saudis - imagine that. Unfortunately, Yemen claims a lot of things and you never know what to believe. For example, now they're claiming that they did NOT release 170 al Qaeda terrorists. No, the media exaggerated and besides, they had nothing to do with al Qaeda. Honest. Believe me, the unnamed source told CNN. (See what I mean?)
From AKI.
Yemeni police say they have arrested 30 people with alleged links to the Al-Qaeda terror network on the border of Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi newspaper, al-Watan, half the number of people arrested were Saudi citizens who had illegally crossed the Saudi border into Yemen.
Police are conducting inquiries to determine if those arrested are part of a resurgent Al-Qaeda network that recently invited Saudi militants to go to Yemen and join local Al-Qaeda cells.
Police are continuing to conduct investigations in the provinces of Mareb and al-Jawf, where there are believed to be Al-Qaeda cells.
Earlier this week, Yemen said it would release 176 men suspected of links to Al-Qaeda on condition of good behaviour.
Yemen has developed a reputation as a haven for Islamist militants in recent years and there have been a several attacks there against western targets.
Previous prisoner releases have worried US officials.
As a result, the US was more reluctant to free Yemeni prisoners from the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, correspondents say.
Last week Saudi Arabia issued a list of 83 wanted militants living abroad and urged them to return to their home country and resume normal life.
Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, is on the wanted list.
Saudi daily Okaz last week quoted unnamed sources saying 11 former detainees from Guantanamo, who returned to home to Saudi Arabia in 2006 subsequently entered Yemen and joined local Al-Qaeda cells there.
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