Washington, January 20: Three dozen Americans have converted to Islam in prison and have travelled to Yemen for possible terrorist training with al-Qaeda radicals, raising alarm among US officials.
American administration is on “heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremist carrying US passports and the challenge is in detecting and stopping home-grown operatives,” according to a new report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
These new moves of al-Qaeda profiled by the committee come as US has designated Yemen-based Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as a terrorist organisation and slapped sanctions on its leaders.
Two top leaders of the AQAP – Nasir al-Wahishi and Said al-Shihri -? too have been designated as terrorists by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department said.
The US is also approaching the UN Security Council to slap sanctions on AQAP and its leaders.
–PTI