Sanaa, July 27: Yemeni security forces arrested four suspected militants who had escaped a sweep of a southern mountainous region last month, a security official said late Saturday. The arrests took place in the past two days, the official said, bringing to 31 the number of suspected militants rounded up in an operation launched in late June in the Jabal Hatat region.
Among them are suspected members of al-Qaeda, while 28 others are still being sought. The operation, launched in late June, involved hundreds of soldiers, backed by tanks and helicopters. Six militants and one police officer were killed in one standoff, the interior ministry said, but reported seizing a large quantity of arms.
The leader of the fugitives, Khaled Abdennabi, was among those killed, according to officials. After mediation failed to secure a surrender, Yemeni anti-terror units went into action against the group accused of having carried out an attack on an army medical convoy that left seven wounded on June 21.
The dozens of suspected radicals hiding out in the rugged and largely inaccessible region included elements from the Islamic Jihad group and the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan, as well as sympathizers of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network, according to military officials.
Yemen is Osama's ancestral homeland. Bureau Report