Family defends brothers

2 charged in US terror plot

OAKLAND PARK, Florida, Dec 2, (AP): Two Florida brothers charged with plotting to support terrorists are caring family men who enjoyed living in the US and would never hurt anyone, their family said Saturday.

Authorities swarmed a quiet, lakefront condominium near Fort Lauderdale earlier this week and arrested Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, and 20-year-old Raees Alam Qazi, charging them with plotting to provide material support to terrorists and to use a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors said the two are naturalized US citizens originally from Pakistan. They remained jailed Saturday without bond.

Two people who identified themselves as the men’s mother and brother told The Associated Press outside their condominium that one of the jailed men is married. They repeatedly refused to disclose their full names to an AP reporter.

“It’s just a whole misunderstanding. A family like this with a baby like this would never do anything like this,” the brother said. ADEN, Dec 2, (AFP): A top Yemeni army commander, in charge of a southern region where the strategic Al-Anad air base is located, escaped an assassination attempt Sunday in Lahj province, a security official said.

“Gunmen travelling in a vehicle fired several rounds towards General Mahmud al-Sobaihi’s car near intelligence headquarters in Huta,” the capital of Lahj, the official said, adding that the officer escaped “unharmed.”

“The general’s bodyguards hunted down the assailants and arrested one, who was wounded in the clashes,” the official said. Swedish soldiers with the NATO forces hold their company’s military flag during a change of command ceremony at the Provincial Construction Team compound in Mazar-i-Sharif north of Kabul,

Afghanistan, Dec 2. (AP)