Al-Qaeda Assassinates Top Security Official at US Embassy in Yemen on His Way to Work

Gateway Pundit

A top official at the US embassy in Sanaa was shot dead today by suspected Al-Qaeda operatives.

Qassem Aqlan was shot dead by gunmen on a motorbike as he drove along Sittin Street today (AFP, Mohammed Huwais)

Masked terrorists murdered the head of the US embassy security team on his way to work this morning. Reuters reported:

Masked gunmen shot dead a Yemeni man on his way to work at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Thursday, a security source said, the latest in a wave of assassinations in the Arab state where Washington is battling al Qaeda militants.

The attackers on a motorcycle opened fire on a car carrying Qassem Aqlan – who headed an embassy security team – in the center of Yemen’s capital, the source told Reuters.

“This (assassination) operation has the fingerprints of al Qaeda which carried out similar operations before,” said the source who asked not to be named.

The Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other militant groups strengthened their grip on parts of the country during an uprising that ousted veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February.

There have been a number of assassinations attempts, some of them successful, on security officials and politicians since Yemen’s army drove Islamist fighters out of several southern towns earlier this year.

Washington, wary of the growing power of al Qaeda, has stepped up drone strikes on suspected militant positions.

Six other colleague officers in Yemen have been assassinated in this way.