Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni police arrested an al-Qaeda suspect on Monday, one day after a mortar attack against a housing complex for US citizens and other Westerners in the capital Sana'a, a security source said.

The source, quoted by a web site run by the Defence Ministry, said Abdullah al-Raimi was arrested in Sana'a. The unnamed source described al-Raimi as "one of the dangerous al-Qaeda members."

He said al-Raimi was "suspected to have been involved in several terrorist operations against Yemen recently."

It was not clear from the source's remarks whether al-Raimi was linked to Sunday's mortar attack on the residential complex.

Al-Raimi was among 23 al-Qaeda operatives who escaped from a heavily-guarded intelligence jail in Sana'a in February 2006. He had been serving a 4-year jail sentence handed down by a state security court in 2005.

The men tunnelled their way out of the prison in a mass escape that embarrassed the Yemeni government and dealt a major blow to its efforts to pursue supporters of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Earlier Monday, a government official said an al-Qaeda wing in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the Sunday's attack.

"Security authorities obtained a statement issued by al-Qaeda in Yemen claiming responsibility for the attack on the residential complex," the official, who asked anonymity, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

The official would not say how the statement was delivered.

The attack that caused no casualties, was carried out with three mortar shells fired from the back side of the complex at around 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) Sunday. The attackers fled and were able to escape, authorities said.

One shell struck a window of a building inside the complex, and the other shells landed on the ground.

Western families were seen evacuating the complex afterward, and officials said they were being transferred to hotels.

The high-security residential complex in the Haddah neighbourhood houses US diplomats and other Westerners working for foreign oil companies in Yemen.

Police said the attack only shattered windows of one villa inside the complex.

A police officer at the scene told dpa that the attack was similar to last month's mortar attack against the US embassy in Sana'a.

On March 18, four mortar shells were fired at the embassy compound, apparently missing their target and striking the courtyard of a public girls' school adjacent to the embassy.

An embassy guard was killed in the March attack, while three embassy guards and 13 female students were wounded. Official media said later that the terrorist network al-Qaeda was behind the embassy attack.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, was the scene of a suicide attack in 2000 on a US Navy destroyer, the USS Cole.

Al-Qaeda praised that attack but did not directly claim responsibility. A similar suicide attack targeted the French supertanker Limburg in 2002.

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

On November 12, a Yemeni state security court in Sana'a convicted a Yemeni man of shooting at the US embassy last year, sentencing him to five years in prison. (dpa)