Gunmen assassinate top Yemeni security official: Report

Unknown gunmen have shot dead a top Yemeni security official in the western province of Dhamar, a report says.

On Wednesday, armed assailants on a motorbike attacked the security official, Saba news agency reported.

“Two gunmen on a motorbike opened gunfire on Colonel (Abdullah) al-Mushki killing him immediately,” a security official told Saba.

“Security services are carrying out vast investigations to hunt down the criminals behind this crime which carries the fingerprints of al-Qaeda,” added the official, whose name was not mentioned in the report.

A similar attack was carried out on December 29, 2012, when two armed men killed Lieutenant Colonel Mutei Baqatyan in the city of Mukalla, in southern Yemen.

On December 18, the military intelligence chief of Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout, Colonel Mohammed Hadiq escaped an assassination attempt.

Yemeni security forces frequently come under attack by gunmen especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country.