The assassinations of intelligence officers in southern Yemen continued yesterday with the shooting of Abdulkarim al-Dalei in Zinjibar. It was the seventh such attack in just over two months (see below), and there is clearly a pattern here: individual officers are being picked off – often by gunmen on a motorcycle.

Al-Qaeda is widely believed to be responsible, though some of those killed have also been investigating the southern separatists. 

Presumably the intention is to demoralise the intelligence service and hamper its work. It sends a signal that the militants know who they are, and protecting them when off duty or out in the field is extremely difficult for the authorities.

August 16: Intelligence officer, Abdulkarim al-Dalei,shot dead in Zinjibar, Abyan province. In a separate incident in the same province, another officer was slightly wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car.

August 13: Colonel Ali Abdul Kareem al-Ban, director of intelligence for Tuban, Lahej province, shot deadoutside his home.

August 5: Three "members of security forces", Nasser Ahmed Al-Faqih, Hadi al-Ramadi and Alau al-Rabahi, shot dead by motorcycle gunmen in Zinjibar, Shabwa province.

July 6: Security officer, Ali Khanbash, survived an assassination attempt at his home in Zinjibar. Another person was injured.

July 3: Body of an army officer, Colonel Abdallah Al-Metri, found in Khanfar region of Abyan province. He had been shot. 

July 1: Senior intelligence officer, Colonel Saleh Amtheib, shot dead outside his home in Zinjibar, Abyan province, by motorcycle gunmen.

June 12: Former intelligence director of Abyan province, Jalal Uthman, shot dead in Zinjibar, Abyan province, while leaving a mosque.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 17 August 2010.