Gunmen shoot dead intelligence officer in southern Yemen

A senior military intelligence officer was killed and two bodyguards injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car in Yemen's southern port city of Aden early on Wednesday, a government official told Xinhua. "Unidentified assailants on a motorbike followed the officer, who was heading to the intelligence headquarters, in the neighborhood of Mu'alla in Aden and fired at his vehicle, killing him on the street," the local official said on condition of anonymity. "His two bodyguards, sustaining several wounds, were taken to the hospital," the official said, adding the assailants had fled the scene. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but assassinations are increasingly carried out by al-Qaida militants in their fight against the Yemeni government forces. According to local security sources, security services in Aden are conducting extensive investigations to hunt down the criminals behind this assault. The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the country and its neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.