Saudis hardened by wars in Syria, Iraq join al Qaeda in Yemen

SANAA (Reuters) - Dozens of Saudi Islamist militants have left the battlefields of Syria and Iraq for Yemen, where their experience appears to have contributed to a spate of lethal al Qaeda attacks, a senior Yemeni security official said.

The influx detected in the last few months is worrying for Yemen, a turbulent country where several hundred Saudi militants are already thought to be fighting alongside their Yemeni counterparts in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).