Yemeni security forces yesterday captured a key leader and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa which prompted embassies to bolt their doors, police said.

The arrest of Mohammed al-Hanq and the two other suspected extremists at a hospital in Raydah, north of capital, came as Yemen's authorities said al-Qaeda jihadists were being choked countrywide and forced into "holes."

Mr Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometres north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded.

A security official said security forces had yesterday morning swooped on a hospital in Raydah, 80 kilometres, north of Sanaa in Amran province, where the suspects were receiving treatment.

"Mohammed al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran," the official said.

Four men who had transported the wounded to the hospital and hid them from police were also taken into custody, the defence ministry-linked news website 26Sep.net said.

Two other al-Qaeda suspects meanwhile turned themselves in to the authorities in the region of Marib, east of Sanaa, yesterday, and a third surrendered in Arhab, a security official said.

The interior ministry said yesterday its security forces were repeatedly raiding hideouts of "terrorist elements" in several provinces and had turned their "fight against into a daily confrontation".

"(Security operations) are not leaving the terrorist elements the chance to take a breath or reorganise their lines," the ministry said in a statement on its website. "Al-Qaeda elements are no longer the ones taking the initiative in deciding the time and place of confrontations," it said, adding that "painful and recurring strikes have forced al-Qaeda to retreat to the holes."

The US embassy closed on Sunday over security concerns prompted by fears of an al-Qaeda threat against foreign interests just days after a failed attack on a US airliner claimed by the al-Qaeda franchise in Yemen.

Some countries, including Britain and France, followed suit while others curtailed consular operations as security was tightened around their missions.

The US embassy reopened for business on Tuesday, saying that Yemeni security forces had addressed a "specific area of concern" the previous day.