SANA'A, Yemen, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Yemen says it has launched a new offensive against elements of al-Qaida with possible ties to the shootings at a U.S. Army base in Texas.
More than 1,000 Yemeni troops and police moved into Shabwa province, the suspected base of militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the government said in a statement posted on the Internet Sunday.
Al-Awlaki exchanged e-mails with U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of opening fire at Fort Hood, Texas, last year, killing 12 people. He also had been in contact with the Nigerian man who tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight headed for Detroit on Christmas Day.
Yemen did not say its current operation was aimed at al-Awlaki. CNN said the government is treading carefully because al-Awlaki's tribe is politically powerful in Shabwa.
The head of Yemen's counterintelligence service said earlier that al-Awlaki was not immune from arrest and prosecution, CNN reported. Yemeni nationals, however, may not be extradited to nations where they could face the death penalty.
