Thursday, July 5, 2012

Yemen captures al-Qaida cell near president's house

SANAA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni counter-terrorism units captured an al-Qaida cell in a neighbourhood near the residential compound of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, a police source said.

"The anti-terror forces raided al-Sunainah neighbourhood, a few meters away from Hadi's house in the west of Sanaa, capturing an al-Qaida cell of four members at dawn on Wednesday," the source told Xinhua anonymously.

"The cell is accused of assassinating a senior intelligence officer two days ago in the same neighbourhood by setting a bomb under the driver seat," he said.

The Yemeni government launched a months-long military offensive against al-Qaida fighters, known locally as Ansar al-Sharia ( Partisans of Islamic Law). Last week, the army completely drove the militants out of their strongholds in several southern cities which they had controlled for nearly one year.

Combating al-Qaida militants in the south is one of the challenges confronting President Hadi, who has promised to launch a national dialogue to settle disputes among all political factions and uproot the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida.

from XINHUA
2012-07-04 18:17:30
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