‘Westerner’ among 7 ISIS suspects arrested in Yemen

Yemeni authorities on Saturday arrested seven ISIS group suspects, including one “Westerner”, in second city Aden, a police officer told AFP.

The arrests are part of a government offensive against ISIS and al-Qaeda, which have claimed a wave of deadly attacks in recent months in Yemen’s south and southeast.

Among these were twin bombings claimed by ISIS that hit loyalist forces in Aden on Monday, killing at least 41 people.

“We arrested seven Daesh (ISIS) members, among them a Western Muslim, in Mansura” district of Aden, said officer Munir al-Yafie, who took part in the raid, without giving further details.

ISIS and al-Qaeda have exploited the power vacuum created by more than a year of conflict between pro-government forces and Iran-backed militias to expand their zones of control in Yemen.

Government forces drove the rebels out of the port city of Aden and other southern provinces since July with support from the Saudi-led Arab coalition which launched its operations in Yemen in March 2015.

But authorities have struggled to secure Aden, where militants emerged after the rebels left the city.

Aden is serving as the temporary government headquarters as the Houthi militias control capital Sanaa.