SANAA, Yemen, April 2 (UPI) -- Radical cleric Sheik Abdel Mageed al-Zindani allegedly was inside the U.S. Embassy grounds in Yemen after barely escaping arrest, sources told BikyaMasr.com.
Republican Guards said they had ordered Zindani be arrested after receiving information Sunday his car convoy would be driving by the Sheraton Hotel, near the U.S. Embassy, BikyaMasr.com reported.
The Web site said Zindani, listed as a terrorist by the United States for suspected links to al-Qaida, escaped arrest but his convoy drove onto the embassy grounds, where he was Monday.
Sources in the presidential palace told BikyaMasr.com ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh had ordered his son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, the head of the Republican Guards, to target Zindani.
The United States had repeatedly called for the ousted Yemen president to have Zindani arrested and deported but Saleh had refused because he believed doing so would lead to tribal violence.
But after Zindani expressed support for the uprising to oust Saleh, the then-president issued a warrant for his arrest last year.
