SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Interior Ministry says police have arrested an al-Qaida leader who is one of the country's most wanted fugitives.

The ministry, in a statement late Friday, said Suleiman Hassan Mohammed Murshed Awad was arrested in Zinjibar, the capital of southern Abyan province, once an al-Qaida hotbed. It did not say when he was arrested.

Awad, also known as Abu Osama al-Abi, was "one of the most dangerous criminal elements in al-Qaida who is involved in killing security men and joining others in terrorist attacks on foreign targets in Sanaa."

Washington, which considers Yemen's al-Qaida branch the group's most dangerous offshoot, helped Yemeni troops with airpower and advisers last summer. The offensive drove al-Qaida militants out of southern cities, including Zinjibar.