World Bulletin / News Desk

An aide to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Thursday his security team had uncovered a plot to kill him with explosives planted in a tunnel running to a mosque inside his residential compound in Sanaa.

The General People's Congress said that a tunnel dug by a "terrorist" group that leads to Saleh's house in the capital Sanaa had been discovered.

The party claimed that the tunnel had been planned to be used to carry out a "terrorist" operation against Saleh, his family and party leaders.

He has survived at least two assassination attempts, the latest in June 2011 when he sustained serious burns and several senior officials and aides were killed.

Abdullah al-Mughrabi, Saleh's private secretary, said the plot came to light following a tip-off to his security guards from one of the people involved in digging the tunnel.

"Initial investigations showed that the tunnelling began four months ago and its purpose was to assassinate the former president and his aides," Mughrabi told Reuters.

"The tunnel had reached under a small mosque at the house which is used by the former president and top leaders of his political party."

Mughrabi said Saleh's security went to inspect the tunnel and detained five people on the spot. Three of them were handed to Yemen's top security team, a committee headed by the minister of interior.

The party said that incumbent President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has ordered an investigation into the alleged plot.

An interior ministry official confirmed that three suspects had been turned over to the authorities by Saleh's security team and said others were being sought for questioning, but declined to give further details.

Saleh retains the post of head of the General People's Congress, the former ruling party and a main partner in the coalition government that was set up after he stepped aside.

Saleh had stepped down in 2012 following months of protests against his 33-year rule of the Arab Peninsula country.