Al Qaida militants seize town southeast of Sana’a

Group’s next target may be oil-rich Maarib province and shipping lanes

Sana’a (Reuters) Dozens of Al Qaida militants have seized a small town about 170km southeast of Yemen’s capital Sana’a, a police source and witnesses said yesterday.

They said the militants entered the town of Radda in Al Baydah province on Saturday night with l i ttle resistance from a small contingent of police and seized an ancient citadel and mosque.

The capture of Radda expands militant control outside the southern province of Abyan, where they have t aken over several towns since an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began early last year that culminated with a power transfer deal in November.

Residents in Radda, which has a population of 60,000, said the group was led by Tarek Al Dahab, a suspected militant who had been handed over by Syria to Yemen recently while trying to infiltrate to Iraq.

Yahya Abu Usba, deputy head of t he Yemeni Socialist Party and a Saleh cri t i c, charged t hat t he security forces appeared t o have done ver y l i t - t l e to stop t he militants from entering Radda and warned that Al Qaida was planning to strike at the oil- rich Maarib province next, bringing it closer to Sana’a.

No Yemeni officials were immediately available for a comment.

Worried

The United States and Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter which helped broker t he Gulf deal that allowed Saleh to transfer power to his deputy, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, have been worried that Al Qaida was expanding its control in the impoverished Arab state next to key oil shipping lanes.

Saleh critics have accused t he outgoing president, who still wields a great deal of power through his family control of security forces despite handing over power, of turning a blind eye to the militants’ expansion to show that his rule was important to keep Al Qaida out.

He denies the charges.