Qaeda presence in Gulf feared, Oman begins hunt

Omani foreign ministry official, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi Sanaa – Khaled Haroji Up to five al-Qaeda members escaped a Yemeni prison on Tuesday as Omani and Yemeni security forces hunted for several other militants fleeing a military offensive in southern Yemen who crossed into Oman, Yemeni security sources said.
The infiltration into Oman, which sits on one side of the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for one third of the world's seaborne oil exports, fuelled fears that al-Qaeda militants may try to set up a base in a region of strategic importance for the United States.
"A limited number of al-Qaeda elements managed to cross the border line to Oman in recent days," the Yemeni source said. "Both sides are coordinating at the level of the border guards and the intelligence service to pursue and capture them."
An Omani foreign ministry official, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, told the newspaper "Oman" that his country was hunting infiltrators from Yemen, but added no arrests had been made.
The small oil and gas exporter is an ally of the United States and Britain.
Separately, in the northern Yemeni province of Hodaidah, at least 23 inmates, including a number of al-Qaeda operatives, fled prison, a security official told Reuters.
"They dug a tunnel from their cell leading to a nearby graveyard," the official, who asked not to be named, said. Yemen's state-run Saba news agency said five militants had fled the prison.
Saudi Arabia fought a militant insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which al-Qaeda members killed dozens of people in attacks on foreign workers and on government facilities.
It's recently deceased Crown Prince Nayef is widely regarded as being the key driver of the forceful crackdown on militancy in his country, during his tenure as defence minister.
Many of the militants fled the Saudi crackdown and regrouped to set up a base in Yemen.
Yemeni officials have said some militants have fled towards a province bordering Oman.
Last year, the sultanate was rocked by mass protests against corruption and unemployment, which appeared to have been inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings.
Those protests have now subsided, largely giving way to sporadic labour protests in the oil, health and education sectors.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Evans, the director-general of British intelligence agency MI5, spoke at the mayor of London's annual defence and security lecture on Monday. He said that although the threat level in the United Kingdom was a notch below where it has been for much of the past decade, the risk was still substantial.
The "terrorist" threat is widening to include al-Qaeda affiliates in Mali, Yemen, Somalia and parts of the Middle East, he stated.
Evans said that although uprisings in the Arab world have brought about radical political changes in some countries, they have also brought fresh opportunities for al-Qaeda affiliates to seek refuge.
"Some are heading home to the Arab world again,'' Evans added.
"And a small number of British would-be jihadis are also making their way to Arab countries to seek training and opportunities for militant activity, as they do in Somalia and Yemen. Some will return to the UK and pose a threat here. This is a new and worrying development," he said.