By Mohamed Sudam
SANAA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Yemeni forces on Saturday arrested a woman believed to be involved in sending explosive packages bound for the United States which triggered a global security alert, a Yemeni security official said.
The arrest was the first in the case, in which two air freight packages containing bombs -- both sent from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago -- were intercepted in Britain and Dubai.
'National security forces have just been able arrest the woman,' the official said, adding that she had been traced through a telephone number she had left with a cargo company.
Yemeni security officials told Reuters the woman was a medical student at Sanaa University and believed to be in her 20s. She was arrested in a poor neighbourhood in the west of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Britain said the device found on Friday on a cargo plane at its East Midlands airport was big enough to down an aircraft.
'We believe the device was designed to go off on the aeroplane. We cannot be sure about the timing when that was meant to take place,' Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters at Chequers, his country residence outside London.
'In the end these terrorists think that our interconnectedness, our openness as modern countries is what makes us weak,' he said. 'They are wrong -- it is a source of our strength, and we will use that strength, that determination, that power and that solidarity to defeat them.'
HALLMARKS OF AL QAEDA
Dubai had said on Friday that it had found a viable bomb.
Officials say the bombs bear the hallmarks of al Qaeda's Yemeni branch, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At least one bomb included PETN, the explosive used in a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day last year.
The White House said Saudi Arabia had helped to identify the threat, and U.S. President Barack Obama thanked Saudi King Abdullah for the 'critical role' his country had played.
Saudi Arabia has come under huge international pressure to take on al Qaeda since it was found to be the home of most of the attackers who struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, killing 3,000 people.
The United States has also focused increasingly on Yemen since last year's failed Christmas Day bombing, which AQAP claimed.
An official in Washington called Saturday's arrest 'a demonstration that Yemen is taking this seriously and cooperation is strong and ongoing'.
There was a heavy police presence on the streets of Sanaa on Saturday night, with checkpoints throughout the city and on the road to the airport, as police hunted accomplices.
WARNING
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said his country was 'determined to continue fighting terrorism and al Qaeda in cooperation with its partners', but warned Washington against taking matters into its own hands.
'We do not want anyone to interfere in Yemeni affairs by hunting down al Qaeda,' he said in a brief appearance before journalists, who were not given an opportunity to ask questions.
Saleh said Yemen would like better intelligence cooperation with the U.S., British and Saudi governments.
In Washington, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said authorities were checking whether other packages had been sent before the two that were intercepted.
'We're doing some reverse engineering, as it were, to identify other packages from Yemen,' she said on NBC News.
One of the packages was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, north of London. The other bomb was discovered hidden in a computer printer cartridge in a parcel at a FedEx Corp facility in Dubai.
Dubai's civil aviation authority said that package had been brought in on a Qatar Airways plane that had stopped over in the Qatari capital Doha.
UPS and FedEx, the world's largest cargo airline, halted shipments from Yemen. On Saturday, Yemen shut down both companies' operations there, citing security concerns.
Britain halted all air freight from Yemen.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, Stefano Ambrogi and Mohammed Abbas in London; Jeremy Pelofsky and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Raissa Kasolowsky, Mahmoud Habboush, Amran Abocar and Praveen Menon in Sanaa and Dubai; Writing and editing by Peter Graff and Kevin Liffey) Keywords: USA YEMEN/ (kevin.liffey@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 7918; Reuters Messaging: kevin.liffey.reuters.com@reuters.net ) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
SANAA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Yemeni forces on Saturday arrested a woman believed to be involved in sending explosive packages bound for the United States which triggered a global security alert, a Yemeni security official said.
The arrest was the first in the case, in which two air freight packages containing bombs -- both sent from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago -- were intercepted in Britain and Dubai.
'National security forces have just been able arrest the woman,' the official said, adding that she had been traced through a telephone number she had left with a cargo company.
Yemeni security officials told Reuters the woman was a medical student at Sanaa University and believed to be in her 20s. She was arrested in a poor neighbourhood in the west of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Britain said the device found on Friday on a cargo plane at its East Midlands airport was big enough to down an aircraft.
'We believe the device was designed to go off on the aeroplane. We cannot be sure about the timing when that was meant to take place,' Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters at Chequers, his country residence outside London.
'In the end these terrorists think that our interconnectedness, our openness as modern countries is what makes us weak,' he said. 'They are wrong -- it is a source of our strength, and we will use that strength, that determination, that power and that solidarity to defeat them.'
HALLMARKS OF AL QAEDA
Dubai had said on Friday that it had found a viable bomb.
Officials say the bombs bear the hallmarks of al Qaeda's Yemeni branch, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At least one bomb included PETN, the explosive used in a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day last year.
The White House said Saudi Arabia had helped to identify the threat, and U.S. President Barack Obama thanked Saudi King Abdullah for the 'critical role' his country had played.
Saudi Arabia has come under huge international pressure to take on al Qaeda since it was found to be the home of most of the attackers who struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, killing 3,000 people.
The United States has also focused increasingly on Yemen since last year's failed Christmas Day bombing, which AQAP claimed.
An official in Washington called Saturday's arrest 'a demonstration that Yemen is taking this seriously and cooperation is strong and ongoing'.
There was a heavy police presence on the streets of Sanaa on Saturday night, with checkpoints throughout the city and on the road to the airport, as police hunted accomplices.
WARNING
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said his country was 'determined to continue fighting terrorism and al Qaeda in cooperation with its partners', but warned Washington against taking matters into its own hands.
'We do not want anyone to interfere in Yemeni affairs by hunting down al Qaeda,' he said in a brief appearance before journalists, who were not given an opportunity to ask questions.
Saleh said Yemen would like better intelligence cooperation with the U.S., British and Saudi governments.
In Washington, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said authorities were checking whether other packages had been sent before the two that were intercepted.
'We're doing some reverse engineering, as it were, to identify other packages from Yemen,' she said on NBC News.
One of the packages was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, north of London. The other bomb was discovered hidden in a computer printer cartridge in a parcel at a FedEx Corp facility in Dubai.
Dubai's civil aviation authority said that package had been brought in on a Qatar Airways plane that had stopped over in the Qatari capital Doha.
UPS and FedEx, the world's largest cargo airline, halted shipments from Yemen. On Saturday, Yemen shut down both companies' operations there, citing security concerns.
Britain halted all air freight from Yemen.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, Stefano Ambrogi and Mohammed Abbas in London; Jeremy Pelofsky and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Raissa Kasolowsky, Mahmoud Habboush, Amran Abocar and Praveen Menon in Sanaa and Dubai; Writing and editing by Peter Graff and Kevin Liffey) Keywords: USA YEMEN/ (kevin.liffey@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 7918; Reuters Messaging: kevin.liffey.reuters.com@reuters.net ) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.