Security officials on Saturday arrested three men for setting fire to a mosque that wounded at least 33 people, six seriously, the previous day, but later said one of the three was mentally disturbed and released the other two suspects. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, identified the prime suspect behind the Friday blaze as Hameed Ali al-Shomi, 22, according to AP. A police investigation soon revealed that al-Shomi, who remains in custody, suffers from psychological problems, the official said, without providing details. The other two suspects were cleared of the accusations, the official also said. On Friday, Yemeni state news agency Saba said that attackers on al-Ameriyah Mosque in Amran, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, San'a, locked the doors of the mosque, poured gasoline on the worshippers and set fire to the building. Amran Governor Taha Hajr ws quoted as saying that «unknown men set fire to the mosque, leaving more than 33 casualties who were admitted to hospitals in the governorate.» The report said the mosque attack had no connection to an ongoing conflict between the Sunni-dominated government and Shiite rebels in Saada, a remote province 180 kilometers north of the capital. Hajr said al-Shomi's father and brother were among the worshippers inside the mosque and that «there was no political or revenge motivation for the attack.» Amran is predominantly Shiite, but the locals belong to the small Zaidi sect which is closer to Sunni Islam than other Shiite traditions. It was not known if the worshippers attacked on Friday were Sunnis or Shiites. Saba reported the attack was the third in Amran. In 2001, a man opened fire on worshippers, killing three, and in 2003 a bomb exploded in a mosque killing one man and wounding 50. Officials have also not linked those previous attacks to the conflict in Saada, where followers of Shiite rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi are battling government troops in fighting that has reportedly left hundreds of rebels and troops dead. The rebels, known as «the Young Faithful Believers,» have accused the government of being corrupt and too close to the West. Yemen, a poor, tribal country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, but has been an active participant in the U.S.-led war on terrorism since the September 11 attacks. -- SPA
