Qaeda suspects shoot dead Yemen intelligence officer

Rashid al Hawi, commander of the intelligence service, died on the spot near his home in Huta

ADEN: Suspected al Qaeda militants shot dead a Yemeni intelligence officer in the restive southern province of Lahij, a security source said on Friday.

"On Thursday night al Qaeda gunmen shot Rashid al Hawi, commander of the intelligence service, killing him on the spot near his home in Huta," the source said.

At around the same time in another part of Huta, police colonel Abdelkader al Daqf survived an attack by al Qaeda insurgents, but one of his relatives was killed, the same source said.

A police chief in Huta, the provincial capital, was shot and wounded on Wednesday night in an attack also attributed to the militant group.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been blamed for most of the increasingly common hit-and-run strikes targeting military personnel in Yemen.

The group, considered by Washington to be al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate, has taken advantage of a decline in central government control during Yemen's 2011 uprising to seize large swathes of territory across the south and southeast.