Sana’a: Eight separatists accused of plotting attacks at tourist spots were arrested in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, a security official said on Sunday.
Police stormed a house in Aden’s Al Boraika area but seven other suspects managed to escape the raid, the official said in a statement published in the state-run media. A manhunt is continuing for the escaped suspects, he added.
The group had formed secret cells assigned to carry out sabotage attacks and unleash violence and chaos with the ultimate goal of undermining national unity, the statement said.
Seven of those arrested had only recently been released from prison after receiving a presidential pardon. They had been convicted of inciting separatist tendencies. The group had been planning to strike tourism centres in Aden to fight what they termed immoral activities and pornography, the official said.
Meanwhile, security officials have circulated pictures and other details of the eight escaped suspects to all security check-points so that they will be sought out as dangerous criminals across the country. The authorities have also appealed to ordinary citizens to come forward with any information that could lead to the arrest of the fugitives.
Meanwhile, four men accused of attacking soldiers were arrested late on Saturday, security sources said.
Earlier in the day, gunmen believed to be allied to Al Qaida opened fire on a bus carrying soldiers belonging to the Political Security Agency, the intelligence wing, in the Shamlan area, on the northern fringe of the capital Sana’a. The gunmen escaped after the attack in which at least 10 soldiers were wounded, three of them seriously. Security sources said the four suspected attackers were later arrested near a traffic intersection in Ayah, to the eastern periphery of Sana’a.
Security forces were also on the lookout for an armed gang that made off with a government vehicle carrying about $1 million (Dh3.67) in the southern province of Lahj, security officials and local authorities said on Saturday. The gunmen opened fire on and injured the driver of the bus belonging to Lahj’s main post office and commandeered the bus in the direction of Abyan while holding the driver’s assistant hostage. About 200 million Yemeni riyals ($1 million) of government funds were in the bus at the time.
