Sana’a:  Yemen says it has arrested the suspected mastermind of the spectacular attack on the intelligence headquarters in the country's main southern city that freed detainees and left 11 people dead.

An official statement on Sunday said the suspect belongs to "terrorist groups" in Yemen and has a known criminal record, including a bank robbery last year.

The government had said that the Saturday attack on the heavily protected security complex in the port city of Aden bore the hallmarks of Al Qaida.

Yemen's central government is grappling with a number of armed groups, including Al Qaida which is gaining ground in the remote areas of the country, as well as an increasingly violent southern separatist movement.