Unidentified gunmen shot dead an army officer in south Yemen Tuesday, in the latest attack on military personnel in the impoverished, violence-wracked country, a security official said.
Captain Shaeq Mohammed Shaeq was shot with an assault rifle by gunmen on a motorcycle in Aden's al-Qahera neighborhood, the official said.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The attack comes after a series of attacks by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on military personnel.
On Monday, two soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in a failed attempt to assassinate the commander of the First Military Region, General Abdul Rahman al-Hulaili, in southeastern Hadramawt province.
AQAP claimed the attack, in which assailants detonated explosives planted on the roadside and opened fire as the general’s convoy passed.
In a separate attack on Monday in central Baida city, two gunmen on a motorbike shot dead intelligence officer Nasser al-Wahishi, a local authority official said, blaming AQAP for the assault.
On Sunday, a similar bombing targeted the commander of the 31st Armored Battalion, General Farej al-Atiqi, in the southern city of Aden.
Atiqi escaped the bomb blast unscathed, but his driver was killed and two other bodyguards were wounded. A device that had been hidden in his car was detonated by remote control, army officials said.
The ongoing crisis in Yemen has raised concerns that the country, neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia and key shipping routes from the Suez Canal to the Gulf, could become a failed state along the lines of Somalia, as it struggles to recover following the ousting of veteran autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh in February 2012.
During the pro-democracy unrest, the military split between forces loyal to Saleh and those backing General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, an Islamist-leaning general who had backed the uprising and went on to become a military adviser to current president Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Corruption, internal splits and competing loyalties in the army began before Saleh was ousted and are now reaching a critical stage. The rift weakened the army and contributed to the rise of AQAP militants.
The group's presence is strongest in the south and southeast of the country, but AQAP has also launched attacks in the capital itself.
Apart from AQAP, Hadi's government faces challenges from southern separatists who have been calling for a weekly civil disobedience day every Monday to demand independence and from Houthi fighters who seized control of Sanaa in September in what they said was a drive against corruption.
