Suspects in Yemen slayings said to plan more attacks

San'a - Two Islamic militants accused in the slaying of three American Christian missionaries and a leftist Yemeni politician had also planned attacks on journalists, other foreigners and prominent Yemeni politicians, security officials said Thursday.

Investigators have compiled a list of eight targets after interrogating the two men, Ali al-Jarallah and Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kamel is accused of shooting and killing three Americans and wounding a fourth in an attack on a missionary hospital in southern Yemen on Monday. Al-Jarallah is accused of killing Jarallah Omar, deputy leader of Yemen's Socialist Party, last week.

Investigators believe the two are part of a larger cell planning attacks. The officials did not give the full list of alleged targets nor name anyone believed included in the hit list. But they said the targets included a guest house used by Ismaili Muslims in San'a. Some Sunni Muslim extremists consider Ismailism -- a form of the Shiite branch of Islam -- heretical.

The officials did not say whether the suspects had described how they planned to carry out further attacks.

Officials have said they suspect Kamel is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, which has found a fertile recruiting ground in Yemen.

A government-owned newspaper, 26 September, reported on Thursday that al-Jarallah confessed that he was part of a cell that included Kamel and other militants.

The newspaper said al-Jarallah confessed that he and Kamel visited the missionary hospital in Jibla, 125 miles south of San'a, several times in the last few weeks to plan the attack.

Police detained five suspected militants on Thursday bringing to 30 the number of those arrested so far in connection with the two cases. So far, no charges have been filed and it was unclear how many of those arrested for questioning were believed to be directly linked to the alleged plot.

The officials said Yemeni interrogators have been informing the FBI as the investigations progress but that U.S. agents were not allowed to interrogate Kamel.

In investigations of past attacks on Americans, U.S. authorities have complained of lack of access to suspects. Yemenis have said they cannot allow foreigners to question Yemeni suspects in Yemen because it is a sovereign nation.

U.S. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday, said the Americans were getting all the cooperation they need from the Yemenis. An FBI team returned to San'a from Jibla on Thursday, the diplomats said.

U.S. Embassy and Yemeni officials said the body of Kathleen A. Gariety, one of the slain missionaries, was flown Wednesday night to the United States. The other two victims of the shooting, Martha C. Myers and William E. Koehn, were buried at the Jibla hospital on Tuesday.

Yemen has been on a front line in the U.S.-led war on terror, and the Yemeni government has cooperated with Washington.

Al-Qaida has been linked to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen, an attack that left 17 U.S. sailors dead, and is suspected in an attack on a French tanker in October that killed one person.

In November, a CIA-operated Predator drone fired a missile that killed bin Laden's top lieutenant in Yemen, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, and five other al-Qaida suspects.

Like elsewhere in the Arab world, anti-American sentiments are running high in Yemen over Washington's perceived support for Israel and the standoff with Iraq. -- New York Times

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