SANAA: Yemeni security forces have arrested a European national of Arab origin for alleged illegal entry from a coastal area, the interior ministry said on its website on Monday.
"Yemeni security forces in (southern) Lahij province arrested a European national … for illegally entering the country," it said, adding he was of Arab origin but without giving his nationality.
The suspect, named only as A.Y. Ahmed, 37, for "investigation purposes," could have entered Yemen on the boats used to smuggle in African migrants, the interior ministry said.
In an attempt to widen its dragnet against Al-Qaeda, Yemen in January stopped granting entry visas on arrival at airports to prevent insurgents from entering the country.
The measure came amid a military crackdown on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is entrenched in mountains east of Sanaa and claimed responsibility for a botched Christmas Day bid to bomb a US passenger plane.
US officials are also worried about 10 Americans — "blonde-haired, blue-eyed types" — who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam and married Yemeni women, according to White House anti-terrorism adviser John Brennan.
He said in a report released in January that they fit the profile of Americans that Al-Qaeda has sought to recruit.
