updated version

Twelve Malaysian students detained by security forces in Yemen last week in what was believed to be part of an anti-terror campaign have been released, officials said today.

The 12, all males aged between 15 and 25, were released yesterday, a spokesman at the Yemen embassy here said but declined to give further details.

"We are very happy with the news that the Malaysian students detained in Yemen had been freed," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

The 12 are students from the Ma'ahad Tahfiz al-Quran religious school in Taiz, which was believed to be an unregistered school.

Eight of them were picked up Feb 19 while on the way to the Yemeni capital Sanaa while four others were picked up the next day at the school, The Star newspaper said.

Six other Malaysian students at the school also sought by the authorities managed to escape and took refuge at the Malaysian embassy, which refused to surrender them to the Yemenis, it said.

Under pressure

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted by the Malay-language Berita Harian as saying their arrests were believed linked to Yemen's crackdown on religious students allegedly engaged in terrorism.

Foreign ministry officials in Kuala Lumpur were not available for comment.

Another Malay daily, Utusan Malaysia , said it understood that the 12 were detained by a special squad under a law similar to Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Apart from the Malaysians, all the other students at the same school were also believed to have been detained, it said.

There are between 250 and 300 Malaysian students in Yemen.

As part of an anti-terror campaign launched by Sanaa at Washington's behest since the Sept 11 attacks, Yemen has expelled around 500 foreign students enrolled in Muslim schools.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier February said there were 84 people in custody in Yemen on suspicion of having links with terrorism, including eight implicated in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole. (AFP)