ADEN – On Tuesday night, militants believed to be from Ansar Al-Shriah fired mortar shells against Badar military airbase located in the Khor Maksar district of Aden.

The Ministry of Interior released a statement on its security website saying that “lawless elements shelled Badar military base with four mortar shells. Three landed in the Badar military airport, while one fell nearby in the Al-Nasr residential area.”

With Al-Qaeda’s and Ansar Al-Sharia’s increasingly frequent attacks targeting military bases and institutions, the security situation in the southern Yemeni governorate of Aden is deteriorating sharply.

The city of Aden is witnessing strict security measures and very high levels of troop deployment.

Abdullah Al-Sharafi, a leader of the Al-Ray Party, told the Yemen Times that the security situation in Aden has deteriorated and that not a day goes by without a theft or security incident.

“Police stations in the city appear to be confused as the alert level is at its highest due to the potential attacks of Al-Qaeda that frequently target army and security institutions,” said Al-Sharafi.

He did not ruled out the possibility that Al-Qaeda could seize control of residential areas in the city of Aden.

“Al-Qaeda has shelled Badar military base from a residential area and they have sleeper cells in some neighborhoods,” he said.

He pointed out that high class areas of Aden such as Al-Mula and Al-Twahi have witnessed a sharp deterioration in security with theft and looting incidents of cars and gold shops reaching an all time high.

A Nissan car belonging to the Thabet Brothers Company was forcibly taken by unidentified gunmen who forced its driver out, police said on Tuesday.

The police have circulated a description of the stolen car to the various agencies of the police and security forces, ordering them to arrest whoever is driving it. The car is Nissan model 2009 with a the number plate 3/3298.