Gunmen Kill Yemeni Intelligence Officer

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a senior Yemeni intelligence officer in the capital Sanaa, the fourth assassination targeting senior officers in just over a month, a security official said.

General Abdullah al-Ashwal "was shot in the stomach by unknown assailants" as he returned home from work late on Monday, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said an initial investigation indicates that "al-Qaida was behind the attack."

Ashwal's killing was the fourth of its kind in just over a month.

Colonel Yahya Saleh al-Khalidi, director of the office of the head of Duleimi air base in Sanaa, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen as he left his house on September 6.

A senior officer in customs security, Colonel Yahya al-Munsif, was shot dead two days earlier near his workplace.

And Colonel Yahya Badi in the intelligence Political Security apparatus was murdered by gunmen last month in northeast Sanaa.

Yemen's unity government, created to lead a political transition after the ousting of veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh in February, is struggling to restructure security forces that have long been dominated by Saleh loyalists.