Yemeni security officer killed by gunmen in capital

Gunmen shot dead a central security officer in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Wednesday, a police official said, highlighting the severe insecurity following the political upheaval in the impoverished Arab state. "Major Mohammed al-Feel from central security forces was gunned down by two assailants on a motorbike near the Interior Ministry headquarters in central Sanaa," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attackers have fled the crime scene, he said. State-run Saba news agency quoted an unnamed official of the Interior Ministry as saying that the killing was a "heinous crime" and investigation has been launched to track the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the victim's brother-in-law, Mutahar, told Xinhua that the incident was a "tribal revenge," denying reports that al- Feel was involved in counter-terrorism efforts. "The same group of motorcycle gunmen also shot dead a seller from our family while he was at his grocery store in al-Hassaba quarter, nearly half an hour after they fired at Major Mohammed al- Feel," Mutahar said. More than 15 security personnel have been assassinated in Sanaa since the beginning of this year by motorbike attackers, for which the government authorities blame the local al-Qaida wing. Last month, unidentified gunmen in Sanaa killed an Iraqi counterterrorism adviser to the Yemeni Defense Ministry and a security coordinator between the Yemeni government and the U.S. embassy in Sanaa. The Interior Ministry's investigation reports blamed both assassination acts on al-Qaida. Yemen has undergone a political transition led by President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the stepping down of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this year. Restoring security has become Hadi's top priority after last year's unrest allowed the insurgent al-Qaida militants to control swaths of remote land and expand activities to major cities.