Sana’a: Unknown assailants wounded an Iranian diplomat in a drive-by shooting outside the ambassador’s residence in the Yemeni capital on Saturday, police and a medic said.
“Unidentified assailants in a van fired on the diplomat three times as he was leaving the ambassador’s residence near a shopping centre in Hadda,” the main diplomatic district of Sana’a, a police source said.
A medic at the capital’s Modern German Hospital said the diplomat had been hit in the shoulder and was in a stable condition.
Nobody at the Iranian embassy was immediately available for comment but other diplomats said the wounded man was a security officer.
The shooting comes as another Iranian diplomat, Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, who was kidnapped in Sana’a last July, remains in captivity, with tribal sources saying his captors are members of Al Qaida.
It comes amid deadly fighting in northern Yemen between Sunni Islamists and Zaidi Shiite rebels whom their opponents charge are receiving support from Shiite Iran.
There has been a spate of attacks targeting foreigners in the Yemeni capital in recent months.
On December 15, the Japanese consul was seriously wounded after being dragged from his car in Hadda and repeatedly stabbed.
On November 26, gunmen killed one Belarussian defence contractor and wounded another as they left their Sana’a hotel.
And on October 6, a German embassy guard was killed as he resisted an attempt to kidnap him.
