Yemeni government forces have captured around 250 “Al Qaeda members” since they retook Mukalla, the largest city in the country’s southeast, last month, a top officer said yesterday.
“We have arrested around 250 members of Al Qaeda, including some leaders, since our operations began,” General Faraj Salmin said.
Salmin commands the second military zone which includes Mukalla, capital of the vast desert province of Hadramawt. The port city was retaken from the jihadists on April 24.
“One of these chiefs, Mohamed Saleh al-Orabi who calls himself the emir of Shar, was detained on Thursday” in the area of the same name some 60 kilometres  east of Mukalla, he added. All of the arrests were made in Mukalla and its surroundings, the general said.
Al Qaeda occupied the city for a year, and imposed strict religious law on residents.
Special forces from the UAE, a member of a Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels across Yemen, played a major role in retaking Mukalla.
Last week, the US said that “a very small number” of American soldiers were also involved in the operation.