Two suspects in the USS Cole bombing who escaped from jail last year have surrendered to authorities in Yemen's southern Abyan province and a third suspect was arrested, a security source said on Tuesday.
"The two suspects surrendered thanks to mediation efforts by officials of the Lawdar region" in Abyan, where security forces have been pursuing dozens of suspected Islamic militants, one source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The source named the two men as Khaldoun Mohammed Nasher and Mohammed Abdullah Dahmane.
The same source later said that "a third suspect, Ali Mohammed Omar Sharbaji, was arrested overnight by security services."
The men were among 10 Yemeni suspects who broke out of prison last April in the southern city of Aden where they had been awaiting trial for alleged involvement in the October 2000 attack on the US destroyer in Aden harbour, which killed 17 US sailors and wounded 38. Three of the 10 suspects are still on the run, the source said.
Yemeni security forces earlier this month launched a hunt for Islamic extremists in Abyan and local officials said 18 suspected members of al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad had been netted.