Yemen jails nine Qaeda members

A Yemeni court has sentenced nine al-Qaeda members to up to ten years in prison after convicting them of plotting to assassinate President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

The security court announced on Sunday that the group, also convicted of planning to kill military officers and kidnap foreigners, were sentenced to between two and ten years in jail, Yemen’s state news agency Saba reported.

Prosecutors said the group had planted an explosive device on a road taken by Hadi on his way to the presidential palace this year.

The judicial officials said al-Qaeda members intended to blow up the bomb remotely and kill the president, but the device was found and dismantled by security forces.

The court also handed down death penalty to an al-Qaeda militant over the bombing of an intelligence headquarters in the country’s south that killed a dozen soldiers in 2010.

Judge Helal Mahfal convicted Ahmed Qadri of taking part in the bombing in the country’s second-largest city, Aden.

Assaults against Yemeni military personnel have been on the rise over the past months. Officials in Yemen blame the attacks on al-Qaeda militants operating in the Arabian Peninsula. The southern province of Shabwa is a stronghold of the terrorist group.

Al-Qaeda loyalists have carried out a spate of deadly assaults against Yemeni security forces since the successor to former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, President Hadi, came to power in 2012.