A general view shows on September 22, 2016 buildings destroyed during Saudi-led air strikes in the rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hodeida the previous day. (AFP/Xinhua)
ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen killed an intelligence colonel in Yemen's port city Aden on Friday, a day after the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for assassinating a police officer in the country's temporary capital.
Th gunmen traveling in a vehicle opened fire at the intelligence Colonel Ali Muqbil, as he was on his way going to Friday prayers in Aden's neighborhood of Mansoura, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses confirmed to Xinhua that the masked gunmen fired a barrage of bullets that hit different parts of the intelligence colonel body and he died immediately at the scene.
The attack is the latest targeting senior security and intelligence officials in Aden, where the Saudi-backed government has temporarily based itself.
Many of the previous armed attacks in Aden have been claimed by the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch or the IS group.
On Thursday, the IS claimed responsibility for assassinating a police officer by attaching an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to the underside of his car.
According to local sources, the assassinated police officer was working for Aden's International Airport and participated in training newly-recruited police soldiers in Aden.
Earlier in the day, Aden's Police Command said in a statement that the anti-terrorism unit raided the home of an IS leader in Aden, seizing large quantities of explosives including M112 and C4 charges.
In the last two months, Yemeni government forces launched anti-terror offensives and drove out scores of gunmen linked to the al-Qaida and the Yemen-based affiliate of the IS from key neighborhoods and government compounds in Lahj and Abyan provinces.
Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional Al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.
The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009 and claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Yemen's army and government institutions.
The AQAP took advantage of the current security vacuum and ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in the south of Yemen.
Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group which is supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and government forces which are backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
Over 6,400 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, many of them civilians.
