Four members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot were detained following a police raid against a hotel in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Sunday, a security official told Xinhua.
"The military police forces launched an operation and stormed a hotel in the Seiyun town of Hadramut province, detaining four al- Qaida operatives," the local security official said.
The captured men were mid-level commanders of the al-Qaida group. They were involved in several drive-by shootings and armed attacks against security forces and intelligence officials in the province, according to the Yemeni official.
Meanwhile, a high-ranking officer of the Yemeni Political Security Forces survived an assassination attempt in Hadramout's town of Seiyun on Sunday afternoon, a government official told Xinhua.
"Gunmen riding a motorbike rained a military car that was carrying officer Hussein Saleh with a barrage of gunshots, but he escaped the attack unhurt," the government source said.
On Saturday, a colonel of the Yemeni military intelligence agency was shot dead in a drive-by shooting by unknown gunmen in Yemen's southern province of Lahj.
Militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot have been blamed by the country's government for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.
The Yemeni military and security forces, with U.S. support, have recently intensified operations against suspected al-Qaida strongholds throughout the country, killing many non-Yemeni al- Qaida suspects, and prompting retaliation attacks by the al-Qaida