Report: Al-Qaeda militants executed 20 alleged US spies Yemen

Dec 14, 2011, 8:00 GMT

Cairo - At least 20 people accused of spying for the United States were executed by suspected al-Qaeda militants in southern Yemen, a local tribal leader told the Kuwaiti newspaper As-Sayassa on Wednesday.

'Al-Qaeda members have also amputated the hands of 16 people on charges of theft,' the unnamed tribal leader was quoted as saying in the report.

He said the alleged executions and amputations took place in Abyan province but did not give exact dates they took place.

The tribal leader also blamed suspected al-Qaeda radicals of forcing around 150,000 to flee Abyan.

'This was in punishment for their rejection of al-Qaeda,' he said.

In the past few months, Abyan has been the scene of frequent clashes between the government forces and suspected al-Qaeda sympathizers.

The Yemeni opposition has repeatedly accused supporters of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of using al-Qaeda as a means to create political chaos in the Arabian Peninsula country.

The opposition has also accused Saleh's government of handing over Ayban to al-Qaeda militants in a bid to gain military and political support from the West.