Gunmen kill intelligence deputy in south Yemen: Security

Unidentified assailants shot dead the deputy head of intelligence in the southeastern Yemeni city of Mukalla on Tuesday, a security official said.

Colonel Ahmed al-Ramada, deputy chief of political security in the city, was killed on his way to work, the official told AFP, adding that al-Qaeda could have been behind the attack.

Mukalla, located on the Gulf of Aden, is the main city of the eastern province of Hadramawt, where al-Qaeda militants are active.

Earlier this month, General Mahmud al-Sobaihi, a top army commander in the south, escaped an assassination bid when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in Huta, the capital of Lahj province.

Sobaihi’s troops played a major role in an anti-Qaeda offensive that ended the control in June of jihadist militants in a string of towns and cities which they had held across the south for a year.

Although weakened, the network's militants continue to launch hit-and-run attacks on members of the security forces across Yemen.