Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda | featured news

A militant who fought alongside Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and is now the leader of a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda in South Yemen has struck a deal with the United States and Saudi Arabia to send 5,000 Al-Qaeda fighters into Syria according to reports out of the Middle East.

More foreign fighters claiming allegiance to al-Qaida have reportedly joined rebels in war-torn Aleppo, deepening the regional implications of the conflict in Syria. According to Zeina Khodr, a journalist with news channel Al Jazeera, "Arab fighters from Saudi Arabia and Egypt who didn't want to be filmed" were operating in the city. Some reportedly claimed allegiance to al-Qaida.

Widows and children of the former al-Qaeda chief arrive in the kingdom after being deported from Pakistan.

A Saudi bombmaker believed to be working with al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing is a key suspect in the parcel bomb plot against the United States, a U.S. official said on Saturday.

Yemen has arrested a man described as al Qaeda's top financier in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a security source told Reuters on Sunday, and seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean have been kidnapped in north Yemen.