ADEN// Antiterrorism forces have arrested the head of Al Qaeda in Yemen’s Lahj province along with seven other members of the group.

Mazen Mohsen Abdullah, who also uses the name Khalad Al Daba, is wanted internationally for unleashing a campaign of chaos and terror in the Al Mansoura area of Aden last year.

Aden police spokesman Abdurrahman Al Naqeeb said Abdullah and his cohorts had confessed to the murder of an Emirati army officer last year.

“The members admitted that they killed several Yemeni officials, leaders of the resistance, and an Emirates officer. They confessed to assassinating Ahmed Al Edreesi, leader of the resistance in southern Yemen, and his guards last December 31 in Al Mansoura district, and to murdering the Emirati military officer Captain Hadif Humaid Al Shamsi,” Mr Al Naqeeb told The National.

Al Shamsi was guarding workers from Emirates Red Crescent when he was shot dead last October by unknown gunmen at the Caltex roundabout in Al Mansoura. Four days later hundreds of Yemenis staged a silent sit-in at the same spot in tribute to the officer and to thank the UAE for its help in sustaining Aden through the conflict in Yemen.

According to Mr Al Naqeeb, the arrested men said they had been paid in Saudi rials for each of the killings in Aden by militants higher up in Al Qaeda, and that they had formed a cell in the city with the task of assassinating officials and commanders affiliated to the coalition and generally “creating chaos”.

Police also found weapons and explosives at Abdullah’s house in Lahj’s Al Hawta area when they stormed it on Wednesday. It was the first time that security forces in Aden have arrested members of Al Qaeda and extracted confessions regarding terrorist activity in the province. The storming of Abdullah’s home was carried out under observation by coalition forces.

Two weeks before the murder of Al Shamsi, a series of suicide bombings in Aden by a group claiming to be affiliated to ISIL killed 15 soldiers from the Saudi-led coalition. Among them were four Emiratis.

Following the failure of peace talks in Kuwait, Saudi-led airstrikes have resumed in several provinces of the country targeting Houthi positions. On Thursday, military jets pounded Shiite rebel positions in and around the capital, Sanaa, for a third consecutive day while shelling from Yemen killed a woman over the border in Saudi Arabia.

In the morning, coalition warplanes struck the Al Dailami airbase near Sanaa airport and a military school inside the Yemeni capital, the pro-rebel Saba news agency reported. Fierce fighting was also reported in the besieged city of Taez and Tha’abat in the east, with neither side making any advances. Sanaa airport has been closed since the air raids began on Tuesday.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae