SANAA,(Reuters) – The Yemeni government is offering 5 million riyals ($25,550) for information leading to the arrest of 13 al Qaeda inmates who broke out of jail earlier this month, an official said on Tuesday.

The official said the reward was part of efforts to recapture the men who were among a group of 23 inmates who tunnelled their way out of prison.

The fugitives include the leaders of the 2000 bombing of the U.S. warship Cole and the 2002 attack on the French supertanker Limburg as well as a Yemeni-American wanted by the United States.

The jailbreak has embarrassed the government of the poor Arab state, which is battling Islamist militants, and raised questions about its security measures among Yemen’s Western allies.

Yemen, the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.