SANA'A — A senior police officer escaped an assassination attempt in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout Wednesday night, a government official said. The police officer survived an assassination attempt when two masked gunmen riding motorbikes fired at his car in Hadramout province, the local government official said on condition of anonymity. "Masked assailants with automatic rifles targeted the vehicle carrying officer Hamood Al-Khader while he was heading to the criminal police headquarters in Tarim city," the government source said. "However, the targeted officer escaped the armed attack safely and unhurt," he added. The police authorities were searching for the attackers, but so far no one had been arrested, according to the official. Yemeni security services have repeatedly blamed militants of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda offshoot for a series of grenade attacks, assassinations and explosions, mostly in the country's southern regions. In January 2009, Al-Qaeda affiliates in Saudi Arabia and Yemen officially merged and formed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP). The group, mainly entrenching itself in Yemen's southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, is on the terrorist list of the United States, which considers it as an increasing threat to its national security. The AQAP underscores the challenges faced by Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who won support from major Yemeni political forces, the United States and Saudi Arabia. Hadi is tasked with restoring security and stability to Yemen and putting an end to growing influence of Al-Qaeda that threatens daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. — Agencies
