Security official confirmed on Saturday morning that suspected al-Qaeda militants shot dead an intelligence officer in the southern city of Mukalla, in Yemen south-eastern province of Hadhramawt.
"Al-Qaeda gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on the officer Ibrahim Bameshel as we was on his way back home, killing him immediately," the official told AFP adding that all assailants had fled.
The attack came two days after Yemen government agreed to an American-led drone strike against an al-Qaeda' stronghold in Dhamar, an area situated 140 Km away from the capital Sana'a.
According to intelligence reports al-Qaeda militants would now be hiding in closer to the capital, in the provinces of Dhamar, Ibb and Hodaidah.
Thursday strike saw the death of five alleged terror militants, among whom Hamed Radman, a man believed to be a dangerous Jihadist.
Just as Thursday drone strike came it seems in response to the Boston bombing, as part of Washington escalation efforts against al-Qaeda in the region, Bameshel's untimely death was prompted by the terror group in retaliation to the targeting of its militants.
Local sources have warned that while Yemen military successfully manage to free in 2012 the southern province of Abyan by reclaiming large swathes of lands fallen to al-Qaeda, the group had now fragmented back again into cells, all throughout Yemen, determined to regain lost ground by rallying yet more men to its anti-America campaign and calls for Jihad (holy war)
Residents in the province of Hadhramawt said leaflets and posters calling for popular support had already been distributed in several cities, all warning that Yemen intelligence personnel had become al-Qaeda's prime targets.