Two suspected members of al-Qaeda terrorist outfit have been killed in a gun battle with police in western Yemen, a local official told the media Sunday.
The shootout occurred at a highway checkpoint north of the Red Sea port city of Houdieda. It also left two policemen injured, one of them critically.
Police opened fire at the car after it failed to pull over for a routine search at the al-Sham checkpoint outside Houdieda city, with two of its occupants dying on the spot while a third one was arrested by Yemini authorities.
One unconfirmed report said the occupant of the vehicle, identified as Qais al-Jabobi, carried an ID of Yemen's National Security and the two others were carrying IDs of the Central Security.
The gunning down came barely hours after the Yemeni authorities beefed up security at the country's government buildings and oil installations, bracing for terrorist strikes.
Western intelligence agencies lately warned that Yemen was becoming a hub of Islamist insurgents, including those from al-Qaeda, despite the Yemeni government's efforts to snuff religious extremism out.
The growing emergence of Islamist insurgency in the peninsular country was further revealed when the young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up an American airliner midflight on Christmas day said he had received training and indoctrination from militant leaders in the Yemen.
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December 19, 2025 15:10 ET U.S. inflation data and interest rate decisions by major central banks were the highlights of this busy week for economics news flow. Employment data and survey results on the housing markets also gained attention in the U.S. In Europe, the European Central Bank and Bank of England announced their policy decisions and macroeconomic projections.