Yemen captures two Europeans training to use arms

SANAA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni security forces have arrested two European nationals while they were training to use rifles in a remote high mountain to the south of the capital Sanaa, the Defense Ministry reported on Sunday.

The pair, both nearly at the age of 24 with one of them carrying an Arab name, were detained in Naqil al-Mashanna area of the Jahran district in the southern province of Dhamar, said the ministry on its website.

The report cited a statement by the Interior Ministry's information center as saying that "the two Europeans were found training with two machine-guns and two pistols."

"The weapons were in the possession of the two young Europeans who belong to the same country," said the report without naming their nationality.

"Both of them have been referred to the security authorities concerned for further interrogations," the report added.

Meanwhile, security apparatuses in the southeastern province of al-Mahra, bordering the oil-rich Gulf country of Oman, have arrested nine people with a considerable quantity of arms in their possession, said the report.

The Yemeni forces seize four machine-guns, three pistols, sniper rifles and two satellite cellular phones that were in the possession of the suspects, aging between 17-45 years, the report noted.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida world network leader Osama bin Laden, has launched intensified security and air raids operations against terrorist groups, after Yemen-based al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for a botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. plane over Detroit.