Yemeni colonel gunned down in Aden

A Yemeni army colonel was gunned down in Aden on Saturday in the latest in a spate of assassinations of senior officers that underlines the persistent insecurity in the city.

A gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle killed Colonel Badr al-Yafei in the city's Khormaksar district, which houses diplomatic missions and the airport, a security official told AFP.

Yemen's second city is the headquarters of the government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition as they battle Iran-backed rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

But 10 months after pro-government forces drove the rebels out of the city, they are still struggling to assert their authority over a growing presence of extremists of both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

On Friday, the governor of Aden's Mansura prison was killed in a similar ride-by shooting.

Late last month, gunmen killed the city's traffic police chief while Aden's police chief escaped two assassination attempts in the space of a week, one of which killed four of his guards.

Source :AFP