Sana'a, Yemen - Three Germans taken hostage earlier in the week in Yemen have been freed, Sana'a government sources said Friday.

Sana'a, Yemen - Kidnappers holding three Germans in Yemen denied on Friday reports claiming that they have demanded the release of two clerics jailed in the United States.

Sana'a, Yemen - Talks aimed at freeing three German hostages held by tribesmen in western Yemen continued Thursday as authorities added a new member to its negotiating team, one of the abductors said.

"We met representatives of the government today, and discussed our demands with them," the abductor, who requested anonymity, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

He was speaking from Naba'ah, a remote mountainous area in Khawlan district, some 60 kilometres south-east of the capital Sana'a.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni coast guard authorities on Wednesday received 23 suspected pirates, including 11 Yemenis, arrested by the Indian Navy in an anti-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week, Yemeni officials said.

The officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that an Indian warship handed over the suspects to Yemeni officials off the southern Yemeni port of Aden.

Yemen on Monday had asked India to hand over the 11 Yemenis who were arrested, along with 12 Somali suspects, by the Indian warship INS Mysore warship on December 13.

The ship foiled an attack on an Ethiopian merchant vessel and arrested the pirates about 160 nautical miles east of the Aden port.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni official assigned by the government to negotiate with kidnappers of three German hostages in western Yemen met the abductors and their hostages on Wednesday, a mediator said.

Abdul-Qawi Obad, the undersecretary of Dhalea'a province, and tribal mediators met the kidnappers at their hideout east of the capital Sana'a and negotiated the release of the three hostages, said Sheikh Nasser Ahmed Sharif, who is talking part in the talks.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni police said Tuesday that they had identified the abductors holding three Germans hostage in a remote area east of the capital, Sana'a, and security forces had closed in on their hideout.

Police said five tribesmen led by Abdu-Rabu Saleh al-Tam were holding the hostages in a house in the mountain village of Naba'ah in the Khawlan district, about 60 kilometres from Sana'a.