ADEN: A Yemeni army colonel was gunned down in Aden on Saturday in the latest in a spate of assassinations of senior officers that underlines the persistent insecurity in the city.
A gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle killed Colonel Badr Al Yafei in the city’s Khormaksar district, which houses diplomatic missions and the airport, a security official told AFP.
Yemen’s second city is the headquarters of the government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition as they battle Iran-backed rebels who control the capital Sanaa.
But 10 months after pro-government forces drove the rebels out of the city, they are still struggling to assert their authority over a growing presence of extremists of both Al Qaida and Daesh.
On Friday, the governor of Aden’s Mansoura prison was killed in a similar ride-by shooting.
Late last month, gunmen killed the city’s traffic police chief while Aden’s police chief escaped two assassination attempts in the space of a week, one of which killed four of his guards.
Meanwhile, the United States killed 10 Al Qaida militants and wounded one in four air strikes in late April, targeting the group’s branch in Yemen, a US military statement said on Friday.
It said the strikes targeted militants of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in various parts of Yemen between April 23 and 28. “We remain committed to defeating AQAP and denying it safe haven regardless of its location,” the statement said.
