A high-ranking Yemeni commander escaped an assassination attempt on Sunday in the southern governorate of Lahj.

Military sources affirmed that a gunman in a four-wheel vehicle assaulted the commander of the Al-Anad military base Mohammad al-Subaihi.

They said that the escorts of Al-Subaihi could injure the attacker and arrest him.

"Nobody was hurt in the armed attack, but two cars of the convoy were pockmarked by bullets," local sources said.

Military sources anticipated that al-Qaeda was behind the event, citing that al-Subaihi is pursuing a military offensive against al-Qaeda in Abyan governorate.

Al-Qaeda had claimed its responsibility for the assassination of senior Yemeni commander including the commander of the Southern Military Region Salem Qatan who was killed in last June.

More than 60 Yemeni officers, most of them are intelligence officers, were killed across Yemen since the beginning of 2012.

Most assassinations carried out against intelligence officers have occurred in Aden and Sana'a which experience alarming insecurity since the popular uprising erupted against the former regime in early 2011.

Yemeni analysts say that Al-Qaeda failed to target Yemeni strategic facilities and it resorted to assassinate high-ranking officers as a simple option.

Leaders of political parties and ministers were frequently to subjected to assassination attempts in Sana'a and other major cities.

Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula had called its members to use motorcycles and avoid using vehicles after US drones increased against them.

The Interior Ministry has directed to ban motorcycles with no registration plates in all Yemeni governorates as most assassinations were carried out by gunmen on motorcycles.