Car explosion kills senior security officer in southeast Yemen

Aden (Yemen), June 17 (Xinhua-ANI): A high-ranking officer of the Yemeni security apparatus was killed Sunday morning in a car explosion in the southeastern Hadramout province, a government official said.

Colonel Ahmed Harmly, who worked at the counter-terrorism department in the security administration in Mukalla city, was killed during the car blast and two of his bodyguards critically injured, the local government official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The huge blast occurred after an apparent bomb attached to the officer's car went off at a suburban area in Hadramout capital Mukalla city," the government official said.

"Initial reports reveal that the attack caused by a focused improvised explosive device," he added.

The official accused al-Qaida militants of plotting the attack.

"An unspecified number of people were either killed or injured at the main gate of that police station. Ambulances rushed to scene," the witnesses said.

Several Yemeni military officials have been assassinated in recent months, with the government authorities blaming members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch.

The al-Qaida wing, locally known as the Partisans of Sharia ( Islamic Law), threatened to spread fighting and suicide attacks all over Yemen after it was forced to abandon its main strongholds in the southern province of Abyan.