Yemen arrests suspected mastermind behind San’a jailbreak

SAN’A - Yemeni security forces have arrested the suspected mastermind behind an attack on its intelligence headquarters, in which four heavily armed militants had stormed their way into the building to rescue detainees.

A Yemini Defence Ministry statement said that the suspect belongs a “terrorist group” in Yemen, and has a known criminal record, including a bank robbery last year.

“Security bodies in Aden succeeded in arresting the leader of the terrorist group which carried out the attack on the political security building,” the statement said.

The government had earlier said that the attack on the heavily protected security complex in Aden bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda.

“We were hit where we least expected it. This is a serious escalation from these terrorist elements,” Fox News quoted Hassan al-Lozy, Yemeni Information Minister, as saying.

No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, which killed seven security officers, three women and a seven-year-old child.

However, Al-Qaeda had earlier issued a statement on its websites threatening to “set the ground on fire under the tyrants of infidelity in Saleh’s regime [Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh] and his U.S. collaborators.”

There have been several other Al-Qaeda prison breaks, including a key one in 2006 when 23 top Al-Qaeda operatives tunneled their way out of a prison.

In 2009, the organization merged with the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda and dramatically increased the pace of its attacks, including an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the British ambassador in April. (ANI)