Al-Qaeda assassinates security officer in Lahj province

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, April 28, 2012- A security officer was assassinated on Saturday morning in Yemen’s southern province of Lahj by unknown men believed to be al-Qaeda militants.

Yasser Abdul Qawi, a Yemeni intelligence officer, was shot by unknown men on a motorcycle, whom opened fire on him while he was walking near the main city hospital.

Last week, an officer in Yemen's southern province of Lahj escaped an assassination attempt conducted by unknown men.

Abdul Qader al-Shami, the head of security intelligence in Lahj was severely injured along with two of his bodyguards in a bomb blast.

Targeting Yemeni soldiers and officers by Ansar al-Sharea, an Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda it is a strategy followed by al-Qaeda fighters to defeat the Yemeni authorities which they accused of dealing with the west.

More than 250 people have been killed since government forces stepped up attacks on the militants whom it accused of assaulting a military camp near Lawdar earlier this month.

Yemen's new president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who took office vowing to fight al Qaeda, is also facing challenges from Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north and secessionists in the south of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.