Yemeni police forces on Monday detained a senior al-Qaeda militant that it described as the most wanted in the country.

A police statement said the senior al-Qaeda figure known as 'Aboudi' was arrested for his involvement in a series of bombings and assassinations of security and military officials.

The statement said the militant ias plotting a car bomb attack in the city with two other militants.

Yemen fell into a civil war in late 2014 when the Shia Houthi group overran capital Sanaa and other provinces, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

Al-Qaeda and DAESH exploited the conflict to expand in these zones.

In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi's embattled government.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country's south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.