ADEN - Yemeni police clashed with suspected al Qaeda militants in the southern city of Aden early on Friday, arresting several, as they searched for a group that had attacked an intelligence building, a security official said.The official told Reuters clashes broke out during a house-to-house search in the Saada district of the southern port city, 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 the impoverished country 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 attack.
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.