SANAA, yemen — Yemeni authorities have arrested two French citizens suspected of being members of al-Qaeda, the country's national security chief said Saturday, without mentioning whether they were involved in the attack by gunmen on a French newspaper. Gen. Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi says the pair were arrested on charges of belonging to the militant group, adding that al-Qaeda has about 1,000 members in Yemen from 11 countries. "Recently two Frenchmen were arrested on charges of belonging to al-Qaeda," he told reporters in the capital, Sanaa. Security officials said the arrests were made before the attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, with one saying dozens of westerners including French and other Europeans belonging to al-Qaeda are present in several of Yemen's rural provinces. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information otherwise. Earlier Saturday, Shiite Houthi rebels abducted the chief of staff to Yemen's president in the center of Sanaa, highlighting the unrest plaguing the Arab world's poorest country. The rebels, who have taken over large swaths of Yemen, claimed responsibility for kidnapping Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. In a statement, they said they abducted him to disrupt a meeting scheduled for the same day that was to work on a new constitution and the reorganization of the country into federally organized regions. "We will not allow this draft resolution to pass," they said, referring to a reform agreement made last year to divide the country into six regions. They had previously rejected the plan. Officials said gunmen kidnapped bin Mubarak, 46, and his two guards when they stopped their car in central Sanaa. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists. AP