Police sources confirmed on Sunday that gunmen linked to al-Qaeda in the south-eastern province of Hadhramawt killed a Yemeni intelligence officer in a drive-by attack on Friday evening.
True to its infamous guerrilla tactic, the terror group once again managed to successfully carry out a revenge attack against Yemen counter-terror services in the province, asserting its ability to carry out attacks undetected.
Despite the government's best efforts, officers all across the country have fallen victims of al-Qaeda since 2011, a sign said security expert that al-Qaeda's potency to harm remains intact.
Colonel Abdullah al-Ribaki was gunned down in a residential neighborhood of Mukalla, the regional capital of Hadhramawt by two unknown armed men on a motorbike.
Officials told the press that "al-Qaeda is behind the killing."
Al-Ribaki who was walking home when the attack took place was shot six times at point-blank range with a revolver fitted with a silencer.
The attack comes amid threats from Ansar al-Sharia, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the region, that its militants are moving to the offensive in the province to claim control, challenging the authority of the central government.
An estimated 80 intelligence officers have been killed by al-Qaeda since 2011.
As al-Qaeda militants are concentrating their attacks in the province of Hadhramawt, fears persist that the terror group will try to replicate its 2011 expansion move. As revolutionaries were calling for reforms in the capital, Sana'a, Islamic militants decided to use the power vacuum to their advantage by seizing large swathes of lands in the southern province of Abyan. Their occupation of Jaar and Zinjibar culminated by the proclamation of two Caliphates.
While the government managed after a bloody and lengthy military operation to drive out the terror militants from Abyan, it failed to destroyed their cells now believed to have spread nationwide.