The motorbike assassinations of security officials continue in Yemen. AFP reports that a colonel in the intelligence service, Mohammed Abdel Aziz Bou Abess, was shot dead near his home in Mukalla (Hadramawt province) yesterday by two masked men on a motorcycle.

Such attacks, widely attributed to al-Qaeda elements, have become a common tactic in recent months. On October 14, another intelligence colonel in Hadramawt died in hospital after being seriously wounded by armed motorcyclists.

A criminal investigations officer was shot dead in Abyan province on October 10, again by two men on a motorcycle.

Last month, al-Qaeda issued a list of 55 security officials and said they would be killed if they failed to "repent". 

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 23 October 2010.