ADEN, June 25 (Reuters) - Yemeni police clashed with suspected al Qaeda militants in Aden on Friday, arresting several, as they searched for a group that had attacked an intelligence building there, a security official said.
The Interior Ministry called for a security alert in the southern port city to prevent militants from entering or smuggling in arms to threaten the economic hub of the impoverished Arabian peninsula state. The security official told Reuters clashes broke out during a house-to-house search in Aden’s Saada district, launched in an attempt to arrest militants behind the attack on the city’s intelligence headquarters that killed 11 people last Saturday.
"Some suspects were arrested," said the official, declining to give more details.
Yemen has blamed al Qaeda’s wing in Yemen for the attack in which militants wearing military uniforms raided the intelligence police building, killing seven security officers, three women and a 7-year-old boy, and freeing several detainees.
Authorities said earlier they arrested the head of the group behind the assault.
Yemen, a neighbour of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, has been a growing security concern for the West since the Yemeni-based arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an unsuccessful attempt to set off a bomb on board a U.S.-bound airliner in December.
The Interior Ministry "called on security bodies to tighten their grip on Aden’s coast and to keep it under constant watch to prevent the infiltration of any terrorist elements into the city or the smuggling of weapons", the ministry website said.
The ministry "reiterated the importance of safeguarding Aden province, the economic capital of Yemen, from any terrorist act", the website added.
Yemen is struggling to curb a separatist movement in the south and cement a ceasefire with Shi’ite rebels in the north. It is under international pressure to quell domestic conflicts to focus on a growing al Qaeda presence in the country.
A day before Saturday’s attack, al Qaeda’s Yemen-based regional branch threatened to respond to a state crackdown against it in eastern Yemen, calling on local tribesmen to take up arms against the government.
