Police arrests 10 for Aden bombing that killed cleric

Aden, Yemen - Yemeni police has arrested ten members of the Islamist Al Islah party, the group said on Wednesday, following a roadside bombing that killed a cleric with ties to the UAE.

Imam Yassin al Adani, a Yemeni cleric who serves as spiritual advisor to UAE troops allied with the government in Yemen’s war, was killed when a roadside bomb struck his car near the Zayed Mosque in the southern city of Aden on Tuesday, multiple security sources told AFP.

The cleric’s 12 year old son was also injured in the attack, the sources said. The Yemeni government has not officially named suspects behind the bombing.

In a statement received by AFP on Wednesday, Al Islah said police had arrested ten members of the Sunni Islamist movement at dawn, including undersecretary general Mohammed Abdulmalik and a field commander.

The statement made no mention of Tuesday’s bombing.

A source in Aden’s police force confirmed officers had raided Al Islah’s offices in the city, arresting ten members of the movement and confiscating explosives.

Al Islah is a key member in a southern alliance that also brings together Yemeni tribes and southern separatists and has historically had links to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE blacklists as a terror outfit.

Yemen’s complex war pits a government alliance, backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, against a rebel camp with ties to Iran. Extremist groups, including the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda, have also flourished in the chaos of war, primarily in the southern governorates.

Foreign diplomats in the Gulf say the UAE’s goals in the Yemen war include gaining control of Arabian Sea ports and driving Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) out of the south. Northern Yemen, until 1990 independent from south Yemen, is controlled by the Shiite Huthi rebels.