Yemeni intelligence official killed

Aden: A colonel of the Yemeni military intelligence agency was killed in a drive-by shooting by unidentified gunmen Saturday, the latest in a series of assassinations in the country, a government official said. "Unknown assailants suspected to be from the Al Qaeda opened fire at Colonel Hameed al-Tawil and killed him near a public hospital in Lahj province," Xinhua quoted the Yemeni government official as saying about the incident in Lahj province.

"At the moment, we don`t have information about the exact numbers of attackers, but the incident looks like a well-planned assassination by terrorists," a police officer said. A local medic in Lahj confirmed the incident saying that the intelligence colonel died after being shot several times in the head. No group immediately claimed reasonability for the drive-by shooting. On Thursday, a Yemeni military intelligence colonel was gunned down by armed men riding a motorbike in the southeastern province of Hadramout.