Yemeni police colonel killed by unknown gunmen

One police officer was killed and other two security personnel were wounded on Sunday by unknown gunmen in the southeastern province of al-Bayda, a military official told Xinhua. The unidentified assailants on a motorcycle showered Col. Sadeq al-Hadad with a barrage of bullets in al-Bayda's outskirts, killing him at the scene and wounding other two security personnel, the local military official said on condition of anonymity. "The colonel's car was confiscated by the masked gunmen and the death toll may increase as two of the injuries are seriously wounded," the military source said. A local medic at a nearby pubic hospital who declined to give his identity said: "Colonel Sadeq arrived dead at the hospital as he was shot in the head and chest." Residents near the scene confirmed the incident to Xinhua saying that "masked gunmen ambushed the colonel's convoy and opened fire on them at a narrow road in al-Bayda." No group has claimed responsibility for the attack and Yemeni government authorities have yet to comment. Militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot were blamed by the country's government for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the southern regions. The al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.