Always Good: Top al Qaeda Leader Caught

Yemeni Police Seize Local Al Qaeda Leader

Yemen's security forces on Tuesday detained a top al Qaeda suspect who had evaded arrest despite heading the Arab state's wanted list for nearly two years.

The official Yemeni news agency, Saba, said Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, also known as Abu Asem al-Macci, surrendered to police after they surrounded a house in the capital, Sanaa, where the Islamic militant had been hiding.

In Washington, a U.S. counterterrorism official said Ahdal had been among the top 20 to 25 al Qaeda leaders still at large and called his capture a significant development.