Yemen says second al-Qaida suspect surrenders to government in northeast province
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Yemen said Monday that an al-Qaida operative turned himself in to authorities in the country's northeastern province, the second such surrender in two days.
The development came as Yemen intensified its campaign to drive al-Qaida militants from their strongholds across this impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.
According to a statement by Yemen's Supreme Security Committee, the suspect gave himself up late Sunday in the province of Marib, surrendering to the local governor there.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The suspect was identified as Hamza Ali Saleh al-Dayan, who is believed to have trained suicide bombers and helped plan the July 2007 suicide attack that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis in the same province.
Al-Dayan was among 23 al-Qaida members who escaped from a Yemeni jail in Feb. 2006, through a tunnel dug under the prison. He was later accused of taking part in the 2008 mortar attack against the U.S. Embassy in San'a that killed a policeman and a young girl at an adjacent school. He and three accomplices fled in a car after that attack.
On Saturday, another suspected al-Qaida operative, Ghalib al-Zayedi, surrendered after lengthy mediation efforts to Marib's Governor Naji bin Ali al-Zayedi, who is also his cousin.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ghalib al-Zayedi was arrested in 2003 and spent the next three years in detention after being accused of hiding a man believed to be al-Qaida's number two in Yemen.
The 2006 prison bust helped strengthen al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen. In January 2009, it got another boost by merging with Saudi al-Qaida militants to form al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Under U.S. pressure and with the help of American aid, training and intelligence, Yemen's government has battled the al-Qaida militants. But the weak government's control barely extends beyond the capital, and the militants have found shelter among powerful and sympathetic tribes that are hostile to the government.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The two surrenders also come against the backdrop of Yemen detaining several foreigners, including Britons, Americans, and an Australian woman, in connection with an investigation into al-Qaida's increased activity in the country.