21 al-Qaida fighters captured in security raid in south Yemen

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SANAA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni government forces captured 21 al-Qaida operatives in a raid on Friday dawn in the country's restive province of al-Bayda, a local security official said, a day after a al-Qaida local chief was assassinated in an intelligence-organized operation.

"A total of 21 al-Qaida fighters, including two commanders, were captured early Friday in a successful joint raid of the Central Security Forces and a unit of the Republican Guards against the terrorist hideouts in al-Bayda's central city," officer Yahya Motahar told Xinhua by phone.

"Heavy machine guns were used in the raid, forcing the well- armed terrorists entrenching in three houses in downtown of the city to surrender," he said.

The detainees were followers of the slain al-Qaida local leader Tariq al-Dhahab who had in January overrun neighboring al-Bayda's town of Radda for a week before he withdrew his militants following a deal with the Yemeni government.

Al-Dhahab, a brother-in-law of the slain Yemeni-born U.S. cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, was assassinated in a mosque in Radda by his half-brother Hizam on Thursday, in an operation planned by the Yemeni intelligence apparatus, according to security officials in Sanaa.

A source close to al-Dhahab family told Xinhua anonymously that "intelligence-agent Hizam was later killed by his al-Qaida-link youngest brother Qayed to revenge for the killing of Tariq."

Al-Bayda, some 170 km southeast of the capital Sanaa, has witnessed during the past four weeks a remarkable progress by the Yemeni government against Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of the Islamic Law), a local name of the regional off-shoot in Yemen know as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Since late January 2011, when protests erupted against Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the AQAP has been working to bolster their presence in the country's remote regions.

The group has taken control of several cities and towns across the restive southern provinces, as the U.S.-backed Yemeni government forces engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists during the past months, leaving hundreds of people killed.

The AQAP, entrenching itself mainly in Yemen's southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, is on the terrorist list of the United States, which considers it as an increasing threat to its national security.

Posted in: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida, alqaeda, Anwar al-Awlaki, AQAP, Yemen