A leaked United States diplomatic cable talking of 23 Australians who have been put on "terrorism watch-lists" in Yemen yet to be published by WikiLeaks.
Details were released by the New York Times, which was given priority access to all 250,000 plus cables to be released by Wikileaks, on December 3.
"Yemen had become a magnet for would-be jihadists from around the globe, and a January cable listed 23 Australian citizens and residents to be added to terrorism watch lists because of activities in Yemen or connections to Mr Awlaki, the radical cleric hiding there," the newspaper reported.
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"Many of the Australians were women, and (al-)Qaeda operatives in Yemen were seeking to identify a female for a future attack, the cable said."
The tiny Middle-East nation of Yemen increasingly has become a hot spot of the training of Islamist militants who are then sent out to fight in Afghanistan and run attacks against the West.
One of the recent documents published by Wikileaks shows nearby Saudi Arabia to be the base of much of the funding that flows to militant groups.
Yemen is also struggling under the weight of a growing civil war.
But the nation hosted the Gulf Cup, a regional football tournament, in December.
While Yemen was knocked out in the first round of the tournament, the fact the nation could hold the event without it being attacked was a show of confidence.
