SANAA, Yemen, April 14 (UPI) -- Yemeni intelligence arrested 45 volunteers who had returned from Iraq after fighting against U.S. and British forces, touching off a protest at Sanaa's international airport.
Airport sources told United Press International Monday that returning volunteers were arrested by intelligence officers though Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh had ordered Sunday the authorities to facilitate the repatriation of Yemeni nationals, including diplomats, from Iraq.
The opposition Nasserite Unionist Party said some of its members who were studying in Iraq and had no links with Muslim extremist groups who dispatched fighters to Baghdad, were among the detainees.
The move touched off protests by some 200 people who arrived at the airport Monday morning to welcome the returning volunteers.
Many Yemenis fought alongside Iraqi forces against U.S. and British troops. The Yemeni authorities also banned many of them from traveling to Iraq via Syria, causing a clash at the airport between the volunteers and security forces.
Yemen has not officially reacted to the outcome of the war in Iraq, maintaining that the situation following Saddam Hussein's apparent ousting was "unclear" and "confusing." The two countries have traditionally had good relations, but strains appeared recently as Baghdad implicitly criticized Sanaa for a lack of support.
