Yemen announces arrest of al-Qaida No. 2 in Arabian Peninsula

SANAA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni security forces on Monday captured al-Qaida No. 2-in-command in the Arabian Peninsula, Said Ali al-Shihri, in southern Yemen, the Interior Ministry said.

The senior al-Qaida leader in Yemen was arrested along with another militant identified as S. Lamankib in the southern province of Shabwa, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The arrests came after the car of the two al-Qaida militants had been involved in an automobile accident on a highway in the Asailan district in Shabwa, said the statement.

"They were rushed to the hospital and put under guard," it said.

The statement did not give details of their injuries in the accident or any other information.

According to local media Yemen Observer, their car overturned on Monday when they were attempting to bypass a newly established checkpoint by the Yemeni security forces.

As a former prisoner at Guantanamo, al-Shihri is one of the most influential Saudis in al-Qaida's expanding offshoot in Yemen. He was accused by the United States of being involved in an attack on the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Sept. 17, 2008, which killed 17 people, including several civilians, and injured another 13.