Suspects in custody

Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri Riyadh Shikawi

They were already in custody when the US released a list of suspects on Monday, Yemeni officials said. They were arrested at the end of last year or early this year.

A sixth man is in custody in a country outside the Middle East, American officials said.

The names and pictures of all six have been removed from the FBI alert, the officials said.

Suspects at large

The Yemeni Government says there may be other al-Qaeda suspects in the country, but also says the network has no military training camps or organised presence.

The FBI says it is continuing an international search for the other suspects, including a man named as the possible ringleader, Fawaz Yayhya al-Rabeei, a Yemeni citizen born in Saudi Arabia.

FBI agent holds up the list of wanted men

On Wednesday, an al-Qaeda suspect related to one of the men on the FBI list accidentally blew himself up after being cornered by security forces in a suburb of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

The man - Samir Ahmed Mohammed al-Hada - was also closely related to one of the 11 September hijackers, security officials said.

Evidence found

After the explosion police said they had searched al-Hada's house, seizing weapons, documents, books, a mobile telephone and a piece of paper containing telephone numbers.

Scores of Yemenis are believed to have joined al-Qaeda - the organisation blamed for the 11 September attacks on the United States.

But the authorities in Yemen are keen to get rid of their reputation as a safe haven for terrorists.

They have intensified military patrols in the Marib area, east of Sanaa, in the hunt for al-Qaeda suspects.

Iranian connection

Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities have informed European embassies in Tehran that some of their citizens were arrested on its territory.

There have been reports of al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects entering Iran.

Iranian state radio reported on Thursday that 150 foreigners had been arrested in Iran.

Most were Arabs, but some held French, British, Belgian and Dutch passports.

An official quoted by the radio stopped short of saying those arrested were members of the former Taleban regime in Afghanistan or Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, but confirmed reports that suspects were present in Iran.