One top leader of the Al-Qaida terror group has been arrested by Yemeni security forces during an operation in the southern province of Abyan, security sources said Thursday.  

According to the sources, Abdul Rauf Nasib was among a group of militants captured Wednesday night in the mountains of Abyan Province, 470 km south of the capital city of Sanaa.

Nasib was believed to be the only survivor of a missile attack launched by a US drone in November 2000, which killed six suspected Al-Qaida members including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, al-Qaida's top leader in Yemen.

Al-Harethi allegedly organized a suicide bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in the southern port of Aden which killed 17 American sailors in October 2000.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has been under pressure from the US administration to fight against terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2004)