The Defence Ministry said seven militants had also been detained in the southern town of Jaar, where a suicide bomber killed 45 tribal fighters earlier this week and threatened further attacks on a bigger scale.
Yemen declared victory in June over Islamist militants calling themselves Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), following a U.S.-backed military campaign that drove Islamist fighters from their strongholds in the southern province of Abyan, where they had gained a foothold.
But militants have shown they continue to pose a serious threat, despite losing control over several towns they had seized while former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was grappling with protests that eventually toppled him.
"A group of the cell`s members was arrested and the rest are being pursued," the mayor of Sanaa, Abdul Qader Hilal, told Reuters.
The seven men arrested separately in Jaar included a Somali national and a militant leader known as Abu Musaab who was responsible for al Qaeda`s finances in Abyan, the Defence Ministry said on its website.
Ansar al-Sharia is linked to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have described as the most dangerous offshoot of the global militant network. (M014)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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