Aden (South24 Center)

The Hadramout Security Committee announced on Saturday, August 1, that investigations into the assassination of Al Arabiya and Al Hadath correspondent Mohammed Aidah had uncovered the involvement of a cell operating for the Houthi militia and affiliated with former Transport Brigade commander Amjad Khaled. Aidah was assassinated in Mukalla on June 24.

The Security Committee broadcast a video showing two principal members of the cell making detailed confessions about their involvement in monitoring and tracking Aidah, preparing for his assassination and carrying out the operation.

In their confessions, the two suspects said they were members of a network led by Amjad Khaled. They described the roles assigned to them and other members of the cell throughout the different stages of the crime, from reconnaissance and monitoring Aidah’s movements to providing logistical support and ultimately carrying out the assassination.

The committee said security forces had arrested two of the principal perpetrators, along with several others who participated directly or indirectly in the operation. It did not disclose the identities of all those arrested or the total number of people detained in connection with the case.

It added that the investigation was based on technical evidence and field inquiries, including surveillance camera footage and evidence linked to the various stages of planning and carrying out the crime.

The committee said the findings followed joint work by security, intelligence and military agencies in Hadramout, in coordination with the Presidential Security Committee, the Central State Security Agency and specialized authorities from inside and outside the governorate.

It added that the case file had been completed and referred to the Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Mukalla, stressing that authorities would continue pursuing anyone found to have participated in the crime or provided support or facilitation for its execution.

The appearance of Amjad Khaled’s name in the suspects’ confessions has reopened the file of an assassination and bombing network that security and judicial authorities have accused him of operating on behalf of the Houthis in Aden and other Southern governorates.

Amjad Khaled is the former commander of the Transport Brigade affiliated with Yemen’s Ministry of Defense. He fought against Southern forces in Aden in 2019 before being defeated and leaving the city.

Khaled later remained for years in the Al-Turbah area of Al-Shamayatayn district in Taiz Governorate. The area is controlled by forces of the Taiz Military Axis, which is aligned with the Islamist Islah Party and nominally operates under Yemen’s Ministry of Defense, despite repeated calls by security authorities in Aden for action to be taken against him.

Khaled continued to reside in Al-Turbah despite being sentenced to death in absentia by the Specialized Criminal Court in Aden in May 2024 over cases linked to bombings and assassination attempts in the capital. He later moved to Houthi-controlled Sanaa.

On June 28, 2025, the Supreme Security Committee announced that intelligence reports had identified Amjad Khaled as the leader of a cell directly linked to the Houthis and involved in assassinations, bombings and espionage. The cell was also accused of providing the group with coordinates and sensitive security information used to target Southern and civilian figures.

The committee said at the time that Khaled’s cell had established its main base in Al-Turbah and used residential houses to prepare car bombs and explosive devices. It also said the cell received direct support from senior Houthi figures, including Abdulqader Al-Shami and Mohammed Abdulkarim Al-Ghamari.

The cell was also accused of involvement in the assassination of World Food Programme office director Moayad Hameidi in Al-Turbah in July 2023 and the October 2021 bombing that targeted the convoy of Aden Governor Ahmed Hamed Lamlas and then Agriculture Minister Salem Al-Soqatri.

Authorities have further linked the network to kidnappings and attempted assassinations targeting security, military and religious figures in Aden, Lahj, Taiz and Al-Bayda.

In November 2025, security authorities in Aden announced the dismantling of another cell that they said had been recruited and trained in Houthi-controlled areas under Amjad Khaled’s direct supervision. Two days after the announcement, Khaled appeared in a video recorded in Sanaa, declaring his alliance with the Houthis, or what he described as the “Sanaa government.”

Mohammed Aidah was killed on the evening of June 24 when an improvised explosive device planted beneath the driver’s seat of his vehicle was remotely detonated while he was inside the car in Mukalla.