Aden (South24 Center)

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The Aden Security Department said on Saturday (September 19) that it had foiled a plot to target security and military forces and key facilities with explosive devices, adding that the investigation linked it to former government military commander Amjad Khalid and individuals associated with the Iran-aligned Houthi militia.

The department said Dar Saad Police, assisted by Kabuta Police, arrested suspect Walid Saleh Ahmed Saleh and found an explosive device and other materials linked to the plot in his possession before the attack could be carried out.

Colonel Musleh Al-Dhrahani, director of Dar Saad Police Station, said the arrest followed surveillance, information-gathering and investigative work coordinated with other security agencies. Investigations were continuing to identify the remaining suspects, he added.

According to investigation records cited in the statement, the suspect admitted receiving an explosive device to target a military force on one of Aden’s main roads after communicating with a man identified as Mamoun Al-Zajr.

The suspect said he travelled to the Sabr area of Lahj Governorate, where he received the device from an unidentified person before taking it to Aden and concealing it. The device was later moved to the Khatt Al-Tis’een area in Al-Mansoura District and placed inside a building near Khatt Al-Khamseen.

He added that he had expected to receive money and a vehicle after carrying out the attack.

According to the statement, the suspect disclosed a meeting in the Houthi-controlled Al-Hawban area of Taiz Governorate that brought him together with Khalid, Al-Zajr and Mohammed Al-Khasha to discuss arrangements for an operation inside Aden.

The suspect said he had met Khalid in Al-Hawban about six months earlier and that Khalid had been carrying a list containing the names of commanders and officers from the Giants Brigades as well as security officers. Among the names he recognised were mosque imam Munir Al-Saadi and Colonel Al-Dhrahani.

Police said Khalid remained in contact with the suspect until shortly before his arrest and instructed him to urgently target any military or security force in the capital.

The statement said the suspect’s alleged tasks also included recruiting people, writing slogans and distributing material opposing the Arab Coalition, and using names associated with the Southern forces to provoke disputes and divisions in Aden.

The suspect also said Al-Zajr had told him that other operatives in the capital had been tasked with using drones to attack government and security headquarters.

The Aden Security Department said the investigation also led to the discovery of additional explosive devices at the suspect’s residence. The suspect said the devices had been brought from Sanaa about a year earlier and handed to him by a man known as Abu Jaafar, whom he described as being linked to the Houthis.

He added that the devices were intended to target Arab Coalition officers and military commanders, including Giants Brigades commanders and National Shield Forces commander Bassam Al-Muhdar.

The Aden Security Department said it would continue investigating the case, pursuing the remaining suspects and completing legal proceedings against those involved.

Neither Khalid nor the Houthis immediately commented on the allegations.

Khalid was appointed commander of the Transport Brigade, then part of the Presidential Protection Forces, by former Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2017. He left Aden for Al-Turbah in Taiz Governorate following clashes in August 2019.

In June 2022, South24 Center documented statements from cells that security authorities said had been recruited in Taiz to carry out bombings and assassination attempts in Aden. Some of the statements linked the operations to Khalid and Mohammed Al-Maisari.

In May 2024, the Specialized Criminal Court in Aden sentenced Khalid and six others to death in absentia after convicting them over the attempted assassination of Aden Governor Ahmed Lamlas and an October 2021 bombing near Aden International Airport that killed 11 people and wounded nearly 30 others.

In October of the same year, Aden Security published confessions attributed to suspect Abdullah Abdul Latif Al-Yamani, who alleged that a network led by Khalid from Al-Turbah received $100,000 a month from the Houthis through representatives in Sanaa to finance bombings and assassinations.

In November 2025, security reports said recruits from the network had been taken to camps in Al-Hawban and Saada for training before being sent back to Aden.

Khalid later appeared in a recorded video declaring an alliance with the Houthis and saying the group had promised to provide him with weapons and training.