Gunmen shot dead intelligence officer in southeast Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni officer of the military intelligence agency and injured two of his bodyguards in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Friday evening, a security official told Xinhua.

Two masked gunmen shot Colonel Awadh Obead al-Ajil twice in the head while he was driving his vehicle near a coffee shop in Ghael Bawazir area, some 43 km northeast of al-Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramout and seriously injured two of his bodyguards, the local security official said on condition of anonymity.

"The assailants then managed to escape after committing the crime," the official said.

Hadramout province, about 794 km southeast of Sanaa, has seen sporadic shoot-outs and motorbike attacks against intelligence officers for the past few months.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which the security official said bore the hallmarks of the al-Qaida terrorist group.

Yemen's southern and eastern regions have recently been rocked by a string of suicide car bombings targeting government buildings and military officials. The authorities usually accuse militants of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula of committing the crimes.