The ministry said in a statement Thursday that the men were captured while meeting in the family home of one of the members in the capital San'a.
The father of one of the suspects was killed by police when he opened fire on police during the raid.
The U.S. has become increasingly worried about militants based in Yemen since al-Qaida groups there and in Saudi Arabia merged last year to become al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
The group organized a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas day in Detroit with a bomber smuggling exposives in his underwear.
