Saddam’s family not in Yemen: source

SANA’A, Jan 22 (Saba) – An official source denied news reports about hosting Saddam Hussein’s family in Yemen, saying Yemen had not received any request on that regard. The unnamed sources, quoted by the 26 September weekly, referred to remarks made by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the Kuwaiti daily of al al-Ray al-Am, in which he had denied those reports. The source “expressed astonishment over the media campaign waged by some Zionist media organs about the alleged hosting of Iraqi families in Yemen.” “That campaign, supervised by some malicious and hostile Zionist forces, targets Yemen and its nationalist ranks that back the Palestinian cause,” said the source. By offering refuge for some of the Iraqi families, Yemen is acting on brotherly, nationalist and human norms, the source said. He added that the number of families granted asylum in Yemen after the Iraq war does not exceed eight, mostly comprised of children and women. JW/KM