A day after Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi announced the official end of the National Dialogue Conference, calling on all Yemenis to rally around their officials as to successfully usher the country through the last stage of its power transition, security officials confirmed that yet another of their officers had been gunned down in the south-eastern province of Hadhramawt.
Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Amir al-Mahthouthi, a senior officer in the investigative branch of state security was killed by alleged Islamic insurgents as he was leaving his residence. In typical al-Qaeda style the unidentified armed escaped on motorbikes.
Al-Qaeda militants have for the past two years waged war against Yemen intelligence and security officials in a bid to derail the impoverished nation’s anti-terror efforts.
Assassinations have become somewhat of an occupational hazards over the past few months in Yemen’ southern region as terror militants have significantly increased the frequency of their attacks against officers. But more troubling yet, it is al-Qaeda’s daring attacks against military outposts and positions which have caused security experts to question the terror group’s military power.
Despite having been driven out of the southern province of Abyan in 2012, where terror militants had managed to establish strongholds, the group seem to have literally grown from strength to strength. In the course of a year al-Qaeda had proven it could carry successful strikes against Yemen military.
Labelled the most dangerous terror branch in the region, al-Qaeda Yemen has proven to be a tough adversary.