Yemeni 'al-Qaeda chief' captured

Ahdal is believed to have fought in Bosnia and Chechnya

A Yemeni man suspected of being a local leader for al-Qaeda has been arrested, the official news agency Saba says.

Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal tops Yemen's most wanted list - and was named by the authorities as one of two top suspects belonging to Osama Bin Laden's network.

He reportedly surrendered on Tuesday after police surrounded a house in the capital Sanaa where he had been hiding.

Yemen has been working closely with the US to crackdown on suspected militants following attacks in the country.

A US defence official said Mr Ahdal was considered an operational-level planner for al-Qaeda, but was not a strategic operator or member of the network's inner circle.

A bomb attack severely damaged the USS Cole in 2000

But the official said his capture was significant and that he was an important operator in terms of Yemen and the Arabian peninsula.

A Yemeni interior ministry statement said security officials "were able to arrest this morning Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, alias Abu Issam al-Maki, one of the top al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen".

Security officials had been watching him for several months before surrounding his house, the statement added.

There have been a number of attacks on Western targets in Yemen.

The warship USS Cole was bombed in Yemeni waters in 2000, killing 17 US sailors, and last year a French tanker was attacked off the coast of Yemen.

According to Yemeni security reports published in the local media last year, Ahdal played a key role in planning both attacks.

He reportedly ranked second to Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, who was among six suspects killed last November by a rocket fired from an unmanned CIA-operated Predator drone.