Aden (South24)

On Thursday, Aden security authorities announced they had thwarted a terrorist plot to assassinate senior security and military leaders.

The police of Dar Saad District in northern Aden said they had arrested an armed cell consisting of 4 members in possession of explosive devices.

The statement added: “The cell was supplied with the names of prominent security and military commanders in Aden to carry out terrorist operations against them”.

The cell’s operatives admitted to being affiliated with the Commander of the Yemeni Transport Brigade, Colonel Amjad Khaled, who lives in Al-Turbah, Taiz.

According to the police statement, the confessions revealed how in order to conduct the assassination plot in Aden, the cell’s members had received support, funding, and instructions from Amjad Khaled. 

Dar Saad’s Police said they had handed over the terrorist cell and seized materials to the Criminal Prosecution in Aden to be judicially processed.

Explosive devices and control devices, which security said were found with the cell members, November 9, 2023 (Aden Security)

This security statement comes just two days after an assassination attempt on Chief of Staff of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Sagheer bin Aziz, using a car bomb in the Northern governorate of Marib.

Amjad Khaled is currently the Aden security forces’ most wanted figure, due to his involvement in the assassination of security and military commanders and the killing of civilians in a series of bloody bombings. 

In 2019, he was expelled from Aden following fierce clashes between forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Presidential Protection Brigades, who are affiliated with the Yemeni Islah Party.  

Prior investigations by Aden’s security agencies, as well as confessions from suspects in several previous cases, revealed Amjad Khaled’s connections to the Houthis in the operations that hit Aden.

In March 2022, two separate assassination operations were carried out in Aden, killing the Commander of the Al-Anad Military Axis, Major General Thabet Jawas, and the Security Belt’s leader, Karam Al-Mashraqi.

In October 2021, Aden Governor Ahmed Lamlas survived a car bomb assassination attack that killed six of his entourage.

Later that month, 30 civilians were killed or injured by a car bomb in front of Aden International Airport. Suspects in this operation disclosed that they had conducted it under instruction from Amjad Khaled and the Houthis.

In several statements, Amjad Khaled denied all accusations against him and asked for the formation of a neutral investigation committee by the Saudi-led Coalition.