Al Mukalla: Warring parties in Yemen reached a preliminary agreement on Tuesday to release all prisoners within 20 days, sources at UN-backed peace talks in Kuwait said.
The agreement is one of the most important milestones yet in nearly three weeks of negotiations that have in recent days struggled to maintain a ceasefire on the ground and appeared headed for collapse.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s conflict a year ago, mainly with air strikes in support of the country’s internationally-recognised government.
A tentative UN-backed ceasefire has been in place since last month to give the peace talks in Kuwait a chance, but both sides have regularly accused each other of violations.
Meanwhile, the governor of Yemen’s Hadramout, Major General Ahmad Saeed Bin Bourek, said on Tuesday that security forces in the province have rounded up 436 suspected Al Qaida members since government forces pushed the militants out of the city of Mukalla on April 24.
Speaking to a gathering of local journalists, Bin Bourek said most of the captured militants were new members who joined Al Qaida after controlling Al Mukalla and would be put to trial. “Most of them were seduced into joining Al Qaida,”
The governor also vowed to stand down militias that surfaced after liberation disguised as resistance fighters. “They would not be any armed groups in Al Mukalla and other cities. All resistance fighters would be merged into the armed forces.”
Government forces backed by heavy air support from the Arab coalition recaptured the city of Mukalla and other coastal areas in Hadramout from Al Qaida militants last month who held them for a year and 20 two days. The governor said that a team of UAE officials met with their counterparts in the city of Al Mukalla to discuss the city’s needs including handling power cuts.
Two senior Salafi clerics were quizzed by investigators apparently for engaging in talks with Al Qaida militants during their capture of Al Mukalla. Residents said the security forces arrested on Monday Abdullah Al Yazidi and Ahmad Bin Ra’oud from their houses in Sheher and Ghayel Bawzer cities.
The two figures were assigned as religious authorities to Hadramout National Council that ruled the city of Al Mukalla collectively with Al Qaida. Also in the liberated Mukalla, army troops revealed a large stash of arms found at many homes stored by Al Qaida. The arms included mortar launchers, shells, caches of rounds and improvised explosive devices. Elsewhere, the commandeer of Special Security Forces in Aden, Lahj and Abyan, Brigadier Fadhel Baashen, on Tuesday survived death when a bomb ripped through the car of one his guards.
— With inputs from Reuters