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Yemeni security forces capture mid-level al-Qaida leader in Aden

Xinhua, August 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Newly trained Yemeni security forces announced on Wednesday that a mid-level leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch was arrested in the southern port city of Aden, the country's temporary capital.

According to a statement released by Aden's Police Command, a counter-terrorism security unit unleashed a successful raid and managed to capture senior al-Qaida militant, identified as "Abu Aizrael," in Aden's outskirts.

The anti-terror soldiers stormed a farm where the al-Qaida leader along with two other terrorists were hiding, and captured them all after brief clashes.

The captured al-Qaida leader is responsible for a series of drive-by shootings and assassinations that targeted security and government officials in Aden.

A spokesman for Aden's security chief told Xinhua that three similar anti-terror operations were conducted during the past 24 hours and resulted in capturing a number of al-Qaida militants in Aden.

Yemeni security units, newly trained and equipped by UAE forces operating in Aden, have conducted several offensives against positions held by al-Qaida and the IS militants in the country's southern regions.

Elsewhere in Yemen, three suspected al-Qaida militants were killed in an airstrike carried out by the U.S. drones in the southeastern Shabwa province on Wednesday evening.

Residents in Shabwa province told Xinhua that the three slain militants were all tribal fighters who recently joined the al-Qaida group.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

The AQAP, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in Yemen's southern part.

Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians. Endit