COPENHAGEN (AP/Xinhua) – A Norwegian citizen who became a member of Al-Qaeda terrorist group in Yemen has been arrested in Yemen by the country’s popular committee and army forces, Norwegian broadcaster NRK said Monday.
According to the report, Anders Cameroon Østensvig Dale is being held in a hospital in Sana’a. He is sought at home on suspicion of terrorism and was put on a blacklist by the United States.
Norwegian prosecutor Haris Hrenovica with the Norwegian security service PST said the suspect’s hospital detention “makes us believe that there is an injury.” It was unclear when and how he was apprehended.
The broadcaster said Ostensvig Dale visited Yemen several times before eventually joining Al-Qaeda’s branch there, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
NRK added that he left Norway for good in 2011. Three years later, PST suspected him of taking part in a terror organization and he was sought internationally.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and several Western states.
The objective was to return to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The war has stopped well shy of all of its goals, despite killing tens of thousands of Yemenis and turning entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemeni forces have continued to grow stronger in the face of the Saudi-led invaders, advancing toward strategic areas held by Saudi-led mercenaries, including Ma’rib province, and conducting several rounds of counterstrikes against Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent months.
In a latest attack on Monday, fighter jets of the Saudi-led coalition launched a series of airstrikes on Yemen’s capital Sana’a, al-Masirah TV reported.
The airstrikes targeted the southern part of Sana’a, the television said without providing further details.
According to residents, the explosions rocked the whole capital.
The coalition claimed the airstrikes came after several bomb-laden drones launched by the Yemeni Army was launched overnight from Sana’a towards the southern region of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported.