Yemen blocks attempt on US Ambassador’s life [Archives:2004/738/Front Page]

Yemeni security thwarted a terrorist plot to assassinate US Ambassador Edmund Hull, said Yemeni Interior Minister last Wednesday.
Interior Minister Rashad Al-Eleimi mentioned the plot when he was speaking to the Parliament, but he did not add more information about Yemeni authorities foiling the plot to assassinate the US Ambassador.
An official at the Ministry of Interior told Associated Press, however, that the terrorists were arrested before they could carry out their plan and that it took place in the second half of last year.
Yemen Times contacted the US Embassy in Sana'a, but a US official referred all inquiries about the alleged plot to assassinate the Ambassador to the Yemeni government.
While addressing the Parliament, Al-Eleimi said that 195 terrorist suspects are being held in custody by Yemeni authorities for the bombing of the USS Cole and the French oil tanker Limburg and planning to assassinate Hull.
Al-Eleimi said 43 terrorist suspects have been handed over to the state prosecutor to possibly face charges.
The USS Cole was bombed in October 2000 while refueling at the port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and Al-Qaeda was blamed for the attack. Two years later Limburg was bombed off the Yemeni coast near Mukalla.
The Yemeni government joined the United States to fight terrorism soon after terrorist attacks on US soil ocurred on September 11, 2001.
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