The Aden authorities arrested on Sunday morning three suspected ISIL militants in Yemen’s southern port city and seized a large amount of equipment and explosives.
Lieutenant Abdulrahman Al Naqeeb, Aden police spokesman, said that a team from the counter-terrorism unit — headed by police chief Maj Gen Shalal Ali Shaiya — raided an ISIL hideout.
"They arrested three men and seized photography equipment — including high-tech cameras, zoom lenses and drones," he told The National.
“The police also found tiny explosive devices that were placed in jewellery boxes and connected to wires so that they can be detonated from a distance.”
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Other seized material included C-4 explosives, TNT and black scarfs donningwith slogans associated with ISIL and Al Qaeda, said Lt Al Naqeeb.
Last week, the Aden police captured a high-ranking ISIL member believed to be the mastermind behind a series of attacks — including one on a military base that killed 14 people and injured 40 others.
Meanwhile, in the southern Al Bayda province, more than 30 Houthi rebels were killed in clashes with the Yemeni army.
"The national army — backed by the Arab coalition — were able to gain control of a military camp in the mountainous region of Taybat Al Esem," a source told The National.
The Saudi-led coalition, which includes the UAE, intervened in the Yemen war in 2015 on behalf of the internationally recognised government.
The military base of Taybat Al Esem was being used by the Iran-backed rebels as a recruitment and training centre, from where militants were dispatched to the northern part of the country. It is considered a strategic position — between the provinces of Al Sada and Al Jawf — which overlooks a route linking Yemen to Saudi Arabia.
The source said that the Yemeni army will be able to cut a major Houthi supply route.
