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."

Washington, Sana'a, Yemen - An al-Qaeda wing in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the mortar attack against a complex housing US citizens and other Westerners in the capital Sana'a, a Yemeni official said on Monday.

"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.

Sana'a, Yemen/Paris - The French government has deployed a unit of its elite GIGN anti-terrorism and hostage rescue force to Djibouti to prepare an assault if negotiations with Somali pirates holding the crew of a luxury yacht bring no results, French media reported Monday.

Late Sunday, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview that France had made contact with the pirates holding 22 French nationals and 10 Ukrainians off the coast of Somalia.

Sana'a, Yemen - Somali pirates took over a French yacht off in the Gulf of Aden and held hostage 30 mostly French crew members on Friday, a Yemeni port official said.

Washington, Sept 14: The Bush Administration’s former chief counter-terrorism adviser, Richard Clark, has claimed that Osama bin Laden is either in Yemen or Somalia, and not in Pakistan.