Yemen arrests eight over plot to bomb US embassy

Yemeni authorities have arrested eight people believed to have been plotting to bomb the US embassy in San'a.

The suspects are believed to have links with the Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, whose group yesterday released a video purporting to show a military training exercises at a base in Afghanistan.

A Yemeni official said two other men were still being sought. The suspects allegedly had in their possession explosives and maps of the embassy and surrounding buildings.

The arrests, which took place on Sunday, coincided with the withdrawal of FBI agents who were investigating the bombing last October of the USS Cole in Aden, which killed 17 American sailors.

Mr bin Laden, who is being sheltered from US justice by the Islamic militant Taliban in Afghanistan, is wanted by the Americans for allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed 200 people. But scarcely a day goes by without his name being linked to some future terrorist action. Yesterday, the Russians warned he could launch an attack on the G8 summit next month in an attempt to assassinate President George Bush.

"Bin Laden is threatening the American President, but we know what international terrorism is today and therefore all the bodyguard units concerned are preparing for this," said Yevgeny Murov, the chief bodyguard of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.