The FBI has issued a nationwide bulletin seeking the arrest of an alleged associate of the suicide hijackers who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US.

The US immigration service has told agents to inspect baggage belonging to Yemeni citizens for large sums of money, thermos bottles and night-vision goggles, a government official has said.

A suspected Yemeni al-Qaida member, believed to be related to one of the September 11 hijackers, blew himself up after being cornered by security forces in a San’a suburb.

Yemeni investigators are trying to track suspected militants and tightening security following US warnings of a terrorist attack in the country.

The FBI has issued an extraordinary terrorist alert asking police forces and the public to be on the lookout for a Yemeni man and several associates who might be plotting an imminent terrorist attack as early as today.