Source:Xinhua
15\5\2010
"The armed militants opened fire on the convoy carrying Deputy Prime Minister Abu Ras and some top security officials in the town of Azzan in Shabwa province," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"Abu Ras along with the other officials and escorts survived unscathed," added the official.
Declining to provide further information, the official said the targetted government officials were engaged in talks with Awalik tribe, which is believed to shelter the wanted Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
The attackers suspected as members of an al-Qaeda offshoot, the official said.
"The government has made progress in talks with Awalik tribe to hand over Anwar al-Awlaki, the most wanted man, who has dual citizenship of America and Yemen," the official said.
Awlaki, who is reportedly a fugitive in his Yemeni hometown of mountainous province of Shabwa, was put into the "capture or kill" list by the United States last month over allegedly involving in two terrorist attacks last year.
The 38-year-old cleric became famous last year after it emerged that he had communicated extensively by e-mail with Major Nidal Hasan, the U.S. army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, last November.
Awlaki, also allegedly having ties with the 9/11 hijackers, has been linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet last Christmas with explosives in his underwear.
On April 15, Yemen's Defence Ministry said that Yemeni security agencies were currently tracking Awlaki.
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