ADEN – Gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni military intelligence officer who had been targeted for assassination by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, a local security official said. Colonel Abdullah Al-Rabaki was walking home in the city of Mukalla in Hadramawt Province late on Friday when the gunmen shot him six times with a revolver fitted with a silencer, the official said. They escaped on a motorbike. Leaflets from militants allied to Al-Qaeda had previously been circulated in the city on Yemen's south coast, calling for Rabaki's assassination, the official said. Tackling lawlessness in Yemen is an international priority for the United States and other Western countries. It is home to an Al-Qaeda wing that has planned international bomb plots. More than 60 army and security officers have been assassinated in the country's southern provinces in the past two years as government forces attempt to wrestle back control of areas seized by militants during the chaos of the Arab Spring. – Reuters
