Yemen Arrests Local Qaida Chief, Five Militants

Yemeni forces have arrested six al-Qaida militants, including a local chief, in the southeastern province of Hadramawt, where the army is pressing an offensive against the group, the defence ministry said on Monday.

Security forces captured Omar Ashour, the al-Qaida chief in Ghayl Bawazir, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of the port city of Mukalla, along with his son Abdullah in the nearby village of Shaheer, the ministry said on its news website 26sep.net.

The pair were arrested on Saturday, a security official told Agence France Presse, as security forces pushed ahead with an operation against al-Qaida militants who recently seized control of some villages in the area.

But militants opened fire on troops as they stormed a farm belonging to Ashour in Ghayl Bawazir following his arrest, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others.

Security forces also arrested four more al-Qaida suspects in the nearby town of Boqshan, the ministry said, without specifying when they did so.

Al-Qaida fighters have been regrouping in areas of Hadramawt since June 2012 after being forced out of the southern province of Abyan, where they ruled major towns for about a year.

Residents of Ghayl Bawazir told AFP last month the jihadists had taken advantage of an absence of security forces in the area to deploy in strength and had distributed leaflets declaring their rule.