Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Suspected Islamic Extremist in Custody for Yemen Attack
Aired January 01, 2003 - 06:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to take you to Yemen where an investigation into the murder of three American humanitarian workers continues.
CNN's Rula Amin is in the capital city there in Yemen, and she's joining us now from videophone with the latest.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catherine, good morning.
U.S. investigators, along with the Yemeni investigators, are working together very closely trying to determine what happened in Jibla. The only good news that we have heard so far about that incident is that the only survivor of that attack, an American pharmacist, has been released from the hospital. He was shot in the abdomen but the situation is stable now and he has been released from the hospital.
Two of the victims have been buried in Jibla in the same place where they have worked for years at the Baptist Hospital. They have been working there for more than two decades before that assassin shot them. One of the victims is -- has been transferred here to the capital Sana'a and will be flown to the United States.
Now, at the same time, today there was a funeral attended by tens of thousands of Yemeni for a political leader here who had been assassinated on Saturday. He was a leftist leader, a socialist leader who was gunned down by what the government describe as an Islamic extremist. And the government is looking into the possibility that this attack had been coordinated with the attack on the American missionaries. They are -- they have suspicions that this may be part of a larger plot that is targeting foreigners as well as secular Yemeni figures and they're trying hard to pin it down.
Everyone we spoke to at that funeral had been very upset, very angry. They were condemning the assassination as well as the attack on American missionaries, and it seems that the government is trying hard to work on these sentiments to use it to rally the people in Yemen against such acts. This political leader who was assassinated, just before he was assassinated, he had just given a speech calling Yemenis to work against the use of violence as means to change and calling for democracy and tolerance -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Rula, other than speculating whether or not these two events, the assassination of the deputy leader and the attack at the hospital, could possibly be connected, do we know if there are any information that this suspect in the hospital shooting had any ties to al Qaeda? AMIN: No links to al Qaeda have been established yet, but it is a possibility that the investigators are looking very hard into. However, they are establishing a connection between the two attackers. They are telling us that the attacker who -- the assailant who killed the political leader had been a very famous preacher who was in prison before for his strong rhetoric and that the attack -- the assailant who killed the American missionaries had been one of his followers and they have been meeting before -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Very interesting developments out of Yemen this morning. Thank you.
That's Rula Amin.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 1, 2003 - 06:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to take you to Yemen where an investigation into the murder of three American humanitarian workers continues.
CNN's Rula Amin is in the capital city there in Yemen, and she's joining us now from videophone with the latest.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catherine, good morning.
U.S. investigators, along with the Yemeni investigators, are working together very closely trying to determine what happened in Jibla. The only good news that we have heard so far about that incident is that the only survivor of that attack, an American pharmacist, has been released from the hospital. He was shot in the abdomen but the situation is stable now and he has been released from the hospital.
Two of the victims have been buried in Jibla in the same place where they have worked for years at the Baptist Hospital. They have been working there for more than two decades before that assassin shot them. One of the victims is -- has been transferred here to the capital Sana'a and will be flown to the United States.
Now, at the same time, today there was a funeral attended by tens of thousands of Yemeni for a political leader here who had been assassinated on Saturday. He was a leftist leader, a socialist leader who was gunned down by what the government describe as an Islamic extremist. And the government is looking into the possibility that this attack had been coordinated with the attack on the American missionaries. They are -- they have suspicions that this may be part of a larger plot that is targeting foreigners as well as secular Yemeni figures and they're trying hard to pin it down.
Everyone we spoke to at that funeral had been very upset, very angry. They were condemning the assassination as well as the attack on American missionaries, and it seems that the government is trying hard to work on these sentiments to use it to rally the people in Yemen against such acts. This political leader who was assassinated, just before he was assassinated, he had just given a speech calling Yemenis to work against the use of violence as means to change and calling for democracy and tolerance -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Rula, other than speculating whether or not these two events, the assassination of the deputy leader and the attack at the hospital, could possibly be connected, do we know if there are any information that this suspect in the hospital shooting had any ties to al Qaeda? AMIN: No links to al Qaeda have been established yet, but it is a possibility that the investigators are looking very hard into. However, they are establishing a connection between the two attackers. They are telling us that the attacker who -- the assailant who killed the political leader had been a very famous preacher who was in prison before for his strong rhetoric and that the attack -- the assailant who killed the American missionaries had been one of his followers and they have been meeting before -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Very interesting developments out of Yemen this morning. Thank you.
That's Rula Amin.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
