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3 al-Qaida members arrested by police in Yemen

04 February 2013 19:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Three members of the Yemen- based al-Qaida offshoot were arrested by the police in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Following an intelligence tip off, police troops arrested three al-Qaida members who were on their way to Aden, the local government official said on condition of anonymity.

"Four al-Qaida operatives were attempting to sneak into Aden to conduct terrorist operations against security officials, but the police troops aborted their plans," the government source said.

The al-Qaida terrorist group, which has been waging an insurgency for more than two years, has yet to make comments.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, known locally as Ansar al- Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), took advantage of a political upheaval in 2011 in Yemen to take over several towns of the southern restive regions.

The militants were targeted by Yemeni security authorities after a U.S.-backed offensive launched in the southern Abyan province months ago routed the militants out of their strongholds that they had controlled for nearly a year.

The Yemeni government along with the United states and oil-rich Saudi Arabia have beefed up anti-terror operation since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February 2012.