SANAA, Yemen, March 19 (UPI) -- A Somali with U.S. citizenship was captured in raids by Yemeni security forces in the restive south, the governor of the Yemeni province of Sanaa said Friday.
Sanaa Gov. Numaan Dowaid said the leadership of Yemen's al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was hiding in Shabwah province in southern Yemen, though he couldn't confirm their exact location, Yemen's official Saba news agency reports.
"If we knew, we would not hesitate in raiding the place," he said.
Dowaid said AQAP and al-Qaida central were trying to destabilize Yemeni infrastructure and spread violence through the region. Yemeni officials said they believe there was a link to an assassination attempt on a Saudi royal in 2009 and the failed plot to down a U.S. passenger plane Christmas Day.
The suspect in the Christmas Day plot has ties to AQAP, which claimed responsibility for planning the attack.
Radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a native of Virginia, meanwhile, issued an audio tape Thursday calling for war against the United States. Awlaki is known to be an al-Qaida sympathizer.
Dowaid hailed a series of high-profile raids against al-Qaida targets in Yemen's south, where al-Qaida militants mix with a violent separatist movement. He said Yemeni authorities had custody of an al-Qaida member who was a Somali holding U.S. citizenship.
Several al-Qaida militants were killed during Yemeni airstrikes Thursday.
