New details emerge of second U.S. facility in violent Benghazi

Yemeni chief of security at US Embassy in Sanaa has been shot dead

SANAA, Yemen - Yemeni security officials say a gunman has assassinated the Yemeni chief of security at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.

The officials say Qassem Aqlani, who was in his fifties, was shot dead while on his way to work early on Thursday. They say a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire at him and fled the scene.

Aqlani had been working for the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital for nearly 20 years.

The Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The attack comes as Yemen's U.S.-backed government is waging an offensive against al-Qaida's branch in the country, taking back territory and cities in the south that the terror group seized last year.

Prosecutor: French terror cell planned Syria trip

Associated Press/Thibault Camus - French police officers converse outside a building where authorities discovered bomb-making material after the break up of a suspected terrorist cell last week, in Torcy, east of Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. French police discovered bomb-making materials in an underground parking lot near Paris as part of a probe of an "extremely dangerous terrorist cell" linked to an attack on a kosher grocery, a state prosecutor said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French police officers stand outside a building where authorities discovered bomb-making material after the break up of a suspected terrorist cell last week, in Torcy, east of Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. French police discovered bomb making materials in an underground parking lot near Paris as part of a probe of an “extremely dangerous terrorist cell” linked to an attack of a kosher grocery, a state prosecutor said Wednesday. (AP photo/Thibault Camus)

PARIS (AP) — A network of French Islamists behind a grenade attack on a kosher market also planned to join jihadists fighting in Syria, a state prosecutor said Thursday, calling the suspected terrorist group potentially the most dangerous established in France since the 1990s.

Five of the 12 people arrested in sweeps in cities around France have been freed, said the prosecutor, Francois Molins. He said seven people remain in custody a day after police discovered bomb-making materials in an underground parking lot as part of a probe of an "extremely dangerous terrorist cell." The seven, aged 19 to 25 years old, were all born in France, he said.

The Sept. 19 attack on the market in Sarcelles, outside Paris, shattered windows and injured a customer at the store. It has revived French concerns that home-grown Islamic militantswant to link with international jihad and carry out terrorism in France — this time, notably, against Jewish targets.

"The intent was to kill," Molins said. "It was just lucky that it (the attack) didn't have the consequences desired by the culprits." He noted that despite five days of questioning, when those held were mostly uncooperative, it was not clear whether the two culprits of the attack were in custody.

Nonetheless, the prosecutor hailed "the dismantling of a terrorist group that is probably the most dangerous brought to light in France since 1996." Back then, Islamic militants linked to a bloody insurrection in former French colony Algeria carried out a series of bombings in France.

Molins said that the bomb-making materials turned up in the underground garage could have been used in "exactly the same type of construction and mechanism used in 1995 by GIA activists" — the French acronym for the now-disbanded Armed Islamic Group in Algeria.

In the garage, investigators found rifles, ammunition, a bottle of candle wax, 3 kilograms of potassium nitrate, a bag of charcoal, 1-1/2 kilograms of sulfur, electric cables, batteries, five car headlight bulbs, and a pressure cooker, Molins said.

"We aren't underestimating either the internal or the external threat," French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said in an interview with Europe 1 radio

In Syria, most of those fighting against President Bashar Assad's military are believed to be ordinary Syrians fed up with the authoritarian regime and soldiers who have defected, analysts say. But increasingly, foreign fighters and those adhering to an extremist Islamist ideology are becoming involved. Two British nationals were arrested Tuesday at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of supporting terrorism in Syria.

French authorities have been on high alert for possible terror attacks by radical Islamists after Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman who claimed links to al-Qaida, shot and killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three paratroopers in southern France in March.

French authorities opened a judicial investigation Thursday over the Sarcelles grocery attack for attempted murder, notably on the basis of the potential victims' religion and in connection with a terrorist organization, the prosecutor said. Related potential charges included the illegal possession of explosive devices, theft, use of stolen property, and illegal possession and transport of firearms.

It's now up to investigating judges whether to file preliminary charges.

The case involves two components: The kosher grocery attack, and the recruitment network. The prosecutor wants seven charged in connection with the alleged network, and six of them in the grocery attack.

Two suspects "had the mission of recruiting and sending individuals to carry out jihad in some countries — notably Syria," Molins said. Two members of the cell had recently spent three months each in Tunisia and Egypt, though police interrogations haven't turned up why they were there, he said.

DNA traces found on the grenade led anti-terror police to Jeremie Louis-Sidney, a 33-year-old convicted drug dealer who, Molins said, converted to radical Islam in prison. Louis-Sidney was killed in a shootout with police on Saturday.

The only other suspect identified by name was Jeremy Bailly, who — instead of Louis-Sidney, as first thought — appeared to be the group's ringleader, Molins said. Bailly had rented the garage where the explosives were found, and investigators found a key to it in his home.

Police investigators turned up five wills that contained "religious recommendations that consisted of saying, 'the day that I won't be here ... respect your Muslim duty, give my iPod to my sister, such-and-such item to my brother-in-law,' etc.," Molins said.

Molins said it was "too early to tell" whether the suspects had contacts with known Islamic militant groups abroad.

French investigators believed they headed off a potentially deadly terror attack, though it was unclear what the target might be. Bailly told investigators that "he wanted indeed to build a bomb, but without naming either his accomplices or his target," according to Molins.

The international link revived memories of the height of the Iraq war in the mid-2000s — when French counterterrorism authorities dismantled a string of feeder cells that sent or plotted to send fighters to join the combat against U.S.-led allied forces there.

A French counterterrorism official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that authorities have noticed a recent trend in which young French militants have been lured by the prospect of jihad in Syria.

Oil prices up amid escalating Turkey-Syria tension

The price of oil rose above $92 a barrel Thursday as growing tensions between Turkey andSyria caused worries about the future of Middle East crude supplies.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for November delivery was up 90 cents to $92.15 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.14 to finish at $91.25 per barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday after some mixed economic signals.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, rose 86 cents to $115.19 on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Turkish jets on Wednesday forced a Syrian passenger plane to land at Ankara airport on suspicion that it might be carrying weapons or other military equipment to support the regime of President Bashar Assad in its civil war against Syrian rebels.

Escalating tensions between the two former allies are "one of the things that are keeping oil prices somewhat firm to stronger," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.

Many observers fear the civil war in Syria could grow into a wider regional conflict that could threaten oil supplies from Middle East producers. The Middle East and North Africa account for about a third of global oil production.

A softer dollar helped lift oil prices by making crude cheaper for investors trading in other currencies. On Thursday, the euro was up to $1.2922 from $1.2847 late Wednesday in New York.

Investors will also be monitoring fresh information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products.

Data for the week ending Oct. 5 are expected to show a rise of 1.5 million barrels in crude oil stocks, while gasoline stocks are expected to remain unchanged, according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration will be out later Thursday.

In other energy trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

— Heating oil rose 2.69 cents to $3.24 per gallon

— Wholesale gasoline was down 0.57 cent at $2.9536 a gallon.

— Natural gas added 0.5 cent to $3.48 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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US missiles kill 10 militants in NW Pakistan

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — U.S. drones fired four missiles at a compound of a Pakistani militant commander in a northwestern tribal region on Thursday, killing 10 militants, while a pair of bombings in another part of the country killed 10 civilians and three security personnel, officials said.

A government administrator in Orakzai region, Salim Khan, said 15 insurgents were also wounded in the drone attack near Biland village bordering the North Waziristan tribal region. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the dead and wounded men were fighters loyal to militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is based in North Waziristan.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief reporters on the record.

Although U.S. authorities often target militant hideouts in the country's North and South Waziristan tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, such strikes in other tribal regions like Orakzai are rare. The U.S. rarely discusses the unmanned drone strikes, which are part of a covert CIA program.

The strikes are extremely contentious in Pakistan, where many consider them an affront to Pakistani sovereignty. They also say the strikes kill innocent civilians, which the U.S. denies.

The Pakistani government protested to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad about Thursday's drone strikes as well as another on Wednesday in which five people were killed.

"The embassy was informed that drone strikes on Pakistani territory were a clear violation of international law and Pakistan's sovereignty. These attacks were unacceptable to Pakistan," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Washington says the strikes are an important part of battling militants in the tribal areas, where Pakistan has been unable or unwilling to do so.

The latest drone attack came hours after a bomb at a crowded market in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan killed 10 people. A roadside bombing elsewhere in the troubled region killed three security officials, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but nationalists in Baluchistan have long waged a low-level insurgency to pressure the government to increase the local share of funds from resources such as natural gas that are extracted from the province.

Islamist militants, including the al-Qaida affiliated group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, also operate in Baluchistan.

The market bombing Thursday took place in the town of Sibi in Baluchistan, and it also wounded 24 people, said senior police officer, Ghulam Aali Lashari.

Lashari said the blast destroyed several shops in the town, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Quetta, the provincial capital.

Hours later, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying security officers in the southwestern town of Dera Bugti. That attack killed three officers and wounded two, said police officer Shehbaz Khan.

Also Thursday, gunmen kidnapped a retired Pakistani army brigadier who was working under contract with the country's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence. The abduction took place on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad, shortly after the officer left his home for work, said a police and a security official.

The officer's driver resisted and was shot and killed, said the two officials, who both spoke on condition anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive issues with reporters. They requested that the kidnapped officer's name be withheld because his safety could be compromised if it were disclosed.

One of the officials said the officer was working on a counterterrorism assignment but would not disclose the exact nature of the mission.

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