Yemen Questions Al Qaeda Suspects

SAN'A, Yemen – Yemen authorities questioned three Al Qaeda suspects who were detained after a firefight that killed two alleged members of the terror network, an official said Saturday.

Two Yemeni soldiers and a woman in a nearby house were wounded in the gunfire late Friday, which erupted when security forces stormed a one-story house in the suburb of Rawdah. Their condition wasn't known.

The house and neighboring homes were riddled with bullets and blood stained a nearby street.

The Yemeni security official refused to provide further details.

Ahmed al-Marwani, who lives next door to the raided house, told The Associated Press that one of the suspects killed in the raid was Yehya Magli, the father of one of the detained men.

"Magli was killed when he tried to escape after security forces besieged the house and demanded their surrender," al-Marwani said. "He was shot dead immediately."

Al-Marwani said the shooting lasted almost two hours and that he was briefly detained after the raid.

"We did not know much about them apart from their names because they seldom showed up outside the house or talked with anyone in the neighborhood," he told AP.

The men, he said, had lived at the house for more than a year.

Yemeni officials have said the country does not shelter terrorists; U.S. officials consider it a longtime Al Qaeda recruiting ground where members could find refuge in lawless tribal areas.

Two years ago, 17 American sailors were killed when the USS Cole was bombed as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. The blast was blamed on Al Qaeda.

U.S. Ambassador Edmund J. Hull and the U.S. military commander for the region, Gen. Tommy Franks, have been negotiating with Yemeni officials recently on the details of a cooperative effort to capture or kill terrorist suspects, U.S. and Yemeni officials have said.