Yemen: Senior al-Qaeda militant detained in Aden

By Mohamed al-Samei

SANAA

Yemeni police forces on Wednesday detained a senior al-Qaeda leader in the southern Aden city.

In a statement, police said the militant, identified as “Abu Azrael”, was nabbed during a security operation in eastern Aden.

According to the statement, the militant was responsible for a spate of assassinations in the southern city.

There was no comment from al-Qaeda group.

Last week, Yemeni police said a senior al-Qaeda militant had been detained in Aden.

Yemen fell into a civil war in late 2014 when Houthi rebels overran capital Sanaa and other provinces, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.