Gulf of Aden Security Review - April 7, 2015

Yemen: Anti-al Houthi militias in Aden city force al Houthis out of al Mualla; suspected Ansar al Sharia militants seize military base in Hadramawt; Saudi airstrike hits school in Ibb

Horn of Africa: Kenyan police arrest four terror suspects in Eastern province, Kenya; Ugandan police arrest terror suspects in Uganda; landmine wounds five in Mudug region

Yemen Security Brief

• Anti-al Houthi militias in Aden city, Aden reportedly drove al Houthi militants out of al Mualla and al Qalua’a, Aden on April 7.  Fighting in the city is currently focused in Khormaksar. Operation Decisive Storm aircraft and naval ships have reportedly continued to shell al Houthi positions within Aden.[1]

• Suspected Ansar al Sharia militants reportedly seized the military base of the 23rd Mechanized Brigade in al Abr, Hadramawt on April 7. Four soldiers were killed in the attack.[2]

• A Saudi airstrike targeting a military base in Ibb city, Ibb reportedly struck a nearby school on April 7. Three students were reportedly killed in the attack.[3]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

• Kenyan police arrested four suspected al Shabaab members in Moyale, Eastern province, Kenya on April 6. The four suspects were of Somali origin and were reportedly preparing to travel to Nairobi from Moyale, which is located near the Kenyan-Ethiopian border.[4]

• Ugandan police arrested three suspected terrorists in Kyengera, Wakiso district, Uganda on April 7. The Ugandan police also announced that they had arrested a suspected terrorist in the Wandegeya neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda on April 3. Security forces in Uganda have been on high alert since the April 2 Garissa University attack in neighboring Kenya.[5]

• A landmine detonated wounding five people in Galkayo, Mudug region on April 7. One of the wounded was Mudug region’s second deputy commissioner. Police began a security sweep following the attack but no one has been arrested.[6]