Members of the Southern Resistance militia gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the southern port city of Aden, Yemen July 31, 2016.

The Yemeni police said on Monday it had arrested what it described as the “most dangerous” leader of the Al-Qaeda in the coastal southwestern city of Aden alongside with two other accomplices, after foiling their operation.

In a statement, the police said they arrested Bassem Aboudy “the most dangerous wanted Al-Qaeda leader in Aden,” which the Yemeni authorities have taken as temporary capital for the time being.

Iran-backed Houthi militias, who attempted a coup to oust the internationally recognized government of President Abedrabu Mansour Hadi in September 2014, forced him out of the capital Sanaa.

The police said Aboudy was behind a series of killings and assassinations targeting the security and military leadership in Aden.

Two of Aboudy’s accomplices, who were “on the verge of executing a car bombing operation in the general thoroughfare in the city,” were arrested, the police added.

He was arrested near a soft drinks factory in al-Mansura neighborhood prior to carrying out the car bombing.

The investigation so far has revealed that Aboudi was able to change the information on his identity card in order to mislead the authorities.

The arrest comes after Hadi’s government, with the backing of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, killed 40 suspected Al-Qaeda militants and fought their way into the militant stronghold in eastern Yemen.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited a 16-month-old civil war between Hadi and the Houthis to capture a 600-km stretch of the Arabian Sea coastline in eastern Yemen.

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