Two jihadist groups the Tunisian army is pursuing on the border with Algeria belong to Al-Qaeda, interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said on Tuesday. "There are two groups, one in the Kef region with around 15 people and the other in Mount Chaambi with around 20 people," Aroui told a news conference, referring to the Islamist groups the army has been hunting since last week. "There is a connection between the two groups, and the one in the Chaambi region has ties with the Okba Ibn Nafaa brigade, which is linked to Al-Qaeda," he added. ms-alf/sma/dv

Two bomb attacks in Iraq on Wednesday killed eight people, including four anti-Qaeda fighters who died when a suicide bomber struck as they gathered to collect their salaries, officials said. The bomber, who was on foot, detonated explosives at a police station in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, as the militiamen, known as Sahwa, gathered near a police station, police Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Yassir al-Jumaili said. The blast killed five people, including a senior police officer and four Sahwa fighters. It also wounded 15 other people.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed five Yemeni soldiers in an attack Saturday on a checkpoint southeast of Sanaa, an official said, while two assailants were reportedly killed. The attack targeted an army checkpoint in the district of Rada, where the interior ministry said late Friday it mounted security measures following intelligence about possible attacks by Al-Qaeda militants. Five soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in the attack, the local government official told AFP.

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former personal secretary to Osama bin Laden was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, for the second time, for participating in a conspiracy to kill Americans that included the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Wadih El-Hage, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen and former al Qaeda member, was one of four people convicted in 2001 for their roles in bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and injured thousands.