YEMEN OBSERVER (Yemen), REUTERS
SANA’A – A U.S. Embassy employee was assassinated on his way to work in the Yemeni capital Thursday.
Yemen Observer reports that Qassem Aqlan, a Yemeni senior security officer working at the U.S. Embassy, was shot dead by masked gunmen on a motorcycle around 10 am Thursday.
Gunmen opened fire on Aqlan’s car, as he made his way along Sittin Street, a busy thoroughfare in Sana’a.
A security source, remaining anonymous, said, “This operation has the fingerprints of al-Qaeda which carried out similar operations before.”
Reuters reports that this assassination is the latest in a series of attacks in the Yemeni capital, as al-Qaeda attempts to strengthen its presence, with U.S. forces responding to the growing threat with a higher concentration of drone strikes in the Arabian peninsula.
A security checkpoint in al-Dalea, southern Yemen, was also attacked late on Wednesday, resulting in two injured police officers.
