Sana'a, Yemen  - A Yemeni state security court of appeal on Monday reduced the jail term from five to two years for a man convicted of trying to get to Iraq to join the insurgency there.

The court did not explain the reason for reducing the penalty against Bashir Mohammad Nouman in its brief verdict delivered by presiding judge Mohammad al-Hakimi.

Nouman, a Yemeni in his twenties, received a five-year prison sentence by a primary state security court in Sana'a on February 2.

The court convicted him of using a forged passport to travel to Syria with the intention to join insurgents fighting US troops in Iraq.

The man was arrested in Syria and extradited to Yemen in February 2007, according to court documents.

Yemen, an impoverished country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, was the scene of a suicide attack on a US Navy destroyer in 2000. A similar attack targeted a French oil supertanker off Yemen in 2002.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, Yemen allied itself with the US-led "war on terror" and pursued suspected members of al-Qaeda and put scores of them on trial. (dpa)