Attacks Kill Four Yemeni Officers in Two Days
A Yemeni military police colonel shot dead Tuesday was the fourth officer to be killed in suspected militant attacks in the capital Sanaa in two days, an official said.
Similar attacks in the past have been blamed on Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a powerful affiliate of the global terror network that has been the target of a U.S. drone campaign and repeated military operations by the weak central government.
Two armed men on a motorbike opened fire at Colonel Abdul Razak al-Jabali, head of training at military police, killing him as he walked to work along Airport Road, a Yemeni official said on condition of anonymity.
Another officer, Fares al-Suwaydi, who worked in security at Sanaa airport, was shot dead in front of the terminal on Monday evening, also by gunmen on a motorbike.
And an intelligence officer died of wounds he sustained in an attack that killed a colleague earlier on Monday in the capital.
The latest attacks targeting security forces came after nearly 70 suspected Al-Qaida militants were killed in a two-day air campaign by U.S. drones and Yemeni warplanes.
The air strikes on Saturday and Sunday came after a video surfaced of AQAP leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi vowing to fight Western "crusaders" everywhere in the world.
AQAP is seen as one of the most sophisticated Al-Qaida branches, and has been linked to several failed terror plots against the United States.
Later on Tuesday, a Yemeni court jailed an Al-Qaida militant for 15 years on Tuesday on charges of helping plan the murder of the commander of a blistering 2012 offensive against the jihadists.
The state security tribunal found Sami Dayan guilty of "taking part in plotting the assassination of General Salem Ali Qatan, the chief military commander in south Yemen."
Dayan was also convicted of "forming an armed group to carry out terrorist acts," and of attacking military bases.
Co-defendant Farhan Awad al-Saadi was jailed for four years.
A Somali suicide bomber killed Qatan on June 18, 2012 as he headed to his office in the southern port city of Aden.
The assailant detonated his explosives after throwing himself on Qatan's car. A medic related to Qatan said the attacker shook hands with the general before blowing him up.
The attack followed a string of defeats inflicted on Al-Qaida by troops under Qatan's command.
The jihadists were expelled from a series of southern towns east of Aden which they had captured during 2011.
Source: Agence France Presse
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