Yemeni security forces have thwarted a bomb attack in a southern city that is being prepared to host the 20th Gulf Football Championships, authorities said.
Police in Aden arrested a man who was caught placing a plastic bag containing 1,800 grams of dynamite in the city’s "vital installations," the interior ministry said in a statement.
Following the arrest on Saturday night, officers detained six accomplices based on his confession, and are still on the hunt for another two members of the group suspected of "sabotage.
Earlier this month, twin bomb blasts rocked a sports centre in Aden, killing one person and wounding several others.
The football competition involving Yemen, Iraq and six Gulf monarchies is to be held from Nov. 22 to Dec. 5 in Aden and neighboring Abyan province, which has seen an increasing number of al-Qaeda attacks.
A security official said the government had deployed 30,000 soldiers in Aden to provide additional security ahead of the competition.
Yemen is trying to quell a resurgent branch of al-Qaeda which has increased its attacks on both Western and government targets in the Arabian Peninsula state, a neighbor of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
Security during the Gulf Cup competition will be an important test of the government’s ability to maintain order.
The government is also trying to cement a truce with Shiite rebels to end a northern civil war that raged on and off since 2004, and to defuse a separatist revolt in the south. It is under pressure from the West to resolve those domestic conflicts to focus on dealing with al-Qaeda.