Yemen offers reward for two Saudi al-Qaeda suspects capture

Yemen's Interior Ministry on Wednesday offered a 10-million-riyal (47,000-dollar) reward for information leading to the arrest of two suspected Saudi members of al-Qaeda, the official Saba news agency reported.

The agency identified the men as Turki Saad Muhammad Qulais al-Shahrani and Ahmad Abdul-Aziz Jasir al-Jasir, dpa reported.

They are wanted for having committed "acts of terrorism and sabotage," the agency said, citing the ministry, without giving further details about the attacks.

Saba said the ministry warned citizens not to shelter the two fugitives.

The reward offer comes three days after security forces launched an offensive backed by air strikes on strongholds of al-Qaeda in the southern province of Abyan.

On Saturday, the Interior Ministry posted a 20-million-riyal (93,500-dollar) reward for the capture of any of eight Yemeni al-Qaeda suspects it listed.

An impoverished country at the south-western tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has come under immense pressure from the US and the West to fight al-Qaeda after the resurgence of the group under its local branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Yemen has stepped up its operations against the organization since December, after the AQAP claimed responsibility for a failed plot to blow up a US passenger airplane during its landing approach last Christmas nDay in Detroit.

The AQAP emerged in January 2009 from the merger of al-Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi branches, after the Saudi group was effectively crushed by that country's government, forcing its members to seek sanctuary in Yemen.