Yemeni security officer shot dead in alleged al-Qaeda attack

Yemeni security officer assassinated in Hadramout, east Yemen Sanaa – Ali Rabea Another Yemeni security officer was assassinated by an armed group believed to belong to al-Qaeda in Hadramout, east Yemen on Friday. Bassel al-Kathiri is the second security officer to have been killed this month. Two armed men killed a Yemeni intelligence officer in a ride-by shooting last October in Sayoun.
Both men were killed outside their homes.
Al-Qaeda has been targeting intelligence officers and security officials for several months now. Sixty-five Yemeni officers have been assassinated this year.
A security source told Arabstoday that the alleged assassination of the head of Sanaa’s local authority Abdul Qader Ali Helal was an accident. The source said a Yemeni security officer shot in the air as he was riding a motorbike, but that unfortunately Ali Helal happened to be in the trajectory of the bullet at the time.
Governmental and local sources originally reported that Helal was the victim of a failed assassination attempt by two central security soldiers.
Helal was at the time checking the state of the city before Eid al-Adha.
In a related context, an al-Qaeda leader has denied a report stating that dozens of al-Qaeda members regretted their actions and that they would turn themselves in to the police in Abyan, south Yemen.
Abu Jihad al-Jaadani claimed the report was completely untrue. He challenged the news agency to give him the names of those who wish to repent.
On Thursday, a local newspaper quoted an official saying that 45 al-Qaeda members wished to leave the extremist group.
In 2011, al-Qaeda took control of several cities in Abyan and Shabwa, south Yemen.
Last May, the Yemeni army, supported by local tribal militias recovered the control over these cities in a military operation called “Golden Swords”.
Al-Qaeda is again spreading in mountainous and desert areas in south and centre Yemen, adopting a new strategy in their confrontations with the authorities which they call “Lone Wolf”.
The strategy is based on the individual assassinations of security and intelligence officials, in addition to suicide operations which target military camps and checkpoints.
The last al-Qaeda suicide attack targeted a Yemeni military camp in Shaqra, Abyan. The attack claimed more than 50 victims.