A Yemeni court today sentenced a suspected al-Qaida militant to death for killing three US missionaries, his lawyer said.

Two Muslim militants accused of killed three American Christian missionaries and a Yemeni politician had also planned attacks on journalists and other foreigners, security officials said today.

Yemeni investigators today said they strongly suspect a man who gunned down four American missionaries had links to the al-Qaida terror network.

The man suspected of killing three American missionaries and wounding another in southern Yemen is believed to have ties to a cell plotting attacks on foreigners and secular-minded politicians, officials say.