Terror suspect surrenders in Yemen

A Yemeni-American who was placed on the FBI's list of 26 "most wanted" terrorism suspects after tunneling out of a Yemeni jail with other convicted al-Qaida prisoners last year has surrendered, authorities said Thursday.

Jaber A. Elbaneh and another escapee turned themselves in recently, said Interior Minister Rashad al-Olaimi, without elaborating.

Elbaneh, a 40-year-old U.S. citizen of Yemeni origin, is wanted in Buffalo, N.Y., on a 2002 charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization. The State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for his capture in 2003.

The FBI placed him on the most wanted list after he and 22 other al-Qaida prisoners broke out of their Yemeni jail in February 2006 by digging a tunnel that led to a nearby mosque.

Besides Elbaneh and the unidentified escapee, 11 of the 23 have surrendered, and security forces have killed four.

Six remain at large, including Jamal al-Badawi, who was convicted of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the destroyer USS Cole in which 17 American sailors were killed in the Yemeni port of Aden.

Elbaneh is a former resident of Lackawanna, N.Y. He left the United States in spring 2001 as part of a larger group recruited from Lackawanna that traveled to Osama bin Laden's al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan.

Six of his traveling companions _ dubbed the "Lackawanna Six" _ returned to the United States and were arrested in September 2002. All are serving sentences ranging from seven to 10 years prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to providing support to a terrorist organization.

Elbaneh never returned to the U.S., traveling instead to his native Yemen.